Mysterious Blue
by nyaikou
Summary: The day Itsuka Namie came to Konoha, her life was about to change. Assigned to Team 7, they find out she isn't the cold-hearted girl they thought she was. But will they feel the same way when they find out the truth about her past? SasukexOC
1. Konoha's Newest Kunoichi

**Mysterious Blue**

**A/N:** _Hey there! Thank you for taking the time to read my newest story, Mysterious Blue. It's about a 12 year old Genin kunoichi called Itsuka Namie. She wanted to live a new life in Konoha but found it was being ambushed. This story is set in Part I and begins on the episodes of the _**Invasion of Konoha Arc on Season 3** (Episodes 68 – 80)._ However, parts of the episodes are only included in this chapter._

_I'm sorry if my character really seems Mary Sue, please tell me if she does because I have tried not to make her be, however these are her powers._

_This is my first Naruto fan-fic and third story so far that has been re-written but I __am not changing the plot for anything__ but any comments on how this can be improved are welcome, this first chapter is pretty descriptive but I'll leave you to read the story._

**EDIT: **This chapter has been proofread by **Jesus Power/Benji. – **03/09/09

**Chapter 1: Konoha's Newest Kunoichi**

A brown-haired girl named Itsuka hid behind a nearby tree as two sound ninja past her in a hurry. "Hurry! The operation has already begun!" One said to the other. The Kunoichi breathed a sigh of relief as they left without noticing the girl; her short brown hair at the front was tied into a tight, white long band and began to blow in the wind as she quickened her pace. Her attire was a white tube top that ended at her lower waist with a black line at the top. She wore blue shorts with a golden bow as a belt on the side and the usual ninja sandals. Itsuka had white ribbon sleeves on her arm and a gold dragon symbol was on her upper left arm

_What is this operation they speak of? _She thought as she began to follow the ninja's trail, now keeping a steady pace so she wasn't too close to them. As the trees began to depart more and more, she began to understand what the sound ninja were talking about; Konoha, the village hidden in the leaves and the place she had destined to come too. Her blue eyes focused on it for a while as she watched destruction break out between sound ninja and leaf-nin.

It was all falling apart for the Hidden Leaf Village. She too, was a leaf ninja. Her headband was tied firmly around her neck. However, Itsuka left to live in the Sand Village long ago for a while for personal reasons of her own. Now, she was back and hoping to start a new shinobi life - if the Hokage would let her – but, looking around, Itsuka could see it wouldn't matter right now. She caught sight of three familiar Sand ninja, the Sand Siblings disappearing into the forest to her left, the oldest; Temari was helping her youngest brother, Gaara along with their brother, Kankuro. A leaf-nin was right on their trail but she only caught a blur of black from the person.

As if it couldn't get worse, the ground began to rumble and three large snakes appeared in a far area of Konoha. The Kunoichi recognized it immediately as it began to destroy the large building in front of it. "Isn't that Orochimaru's snakes?" Itsuka whispered to herself and she began to grow angry at the thought of the missing-nin. "No! It can't be! He's really here?" She despised the snake lord so much.

_Whatever his purpose is, I will stop him._ "Intruder!" _Damn, _she thought. The two sound ninja had spotted Itsuka and began to charge her. Itsuka retreated into the village moving at a powerful speed to avoid the many weapons aimed at her.

"Is that all you got?" She taunted while running backwards and smirking at them.

"Why don't you stop and show us what you've got, little girl?"

"Fine. Let's settle this!" She replied and stopped atop of a house. Luckily, the rooftop she stood upon was a flat surface so it would be easy to fight. Once the sound ninja landed opposite her, she got into a fighting stance.

**--**_**Rooftop**_**--**

Two men continued to fight on the rooftop of the stadium where the Chunin Exams were supposed to be held; one of these men was the Third Hokage, Sarutobi who had come to watch the final round and the other, Orochimaru, his former student who, throughout the years, had become evil. Orochimaru suddenly jumped back and thought to himself. _That strange feeling again, could it be…?_

The Third Hokage looked back at the evil snake lord smirking. "What are you smirking about?" The Third Hokage asked. "What are you planning now?

Orochimaru shook his head and carried his grin on his face. He took one last look at the sky and then charged at him chuckling evilly. _So, she's here now, _Orochimaru thought. _Then it will be easier for me to take her down…_

_--__**Itsuka**__--_

The battle finished quickly between Itsuka and the two sound ninja and once it was calm, Itsuka clasped her hands together as if was a _'take out the trash'_ way. "Too easy." She said to herself. Itsuka was about to take off to find Orochimaru when she heard clapping come from behind her.

"Too easy, was it?" A man with slate hair and brown eyes stood before her. He didn't have a headband on him, though, and only stared down at the ground at the fallen sound ninja. "Impressive, little girl. You fight well."

"I'm not little and I only knocked them out .Who are you anyways?" She asked, readying her kunai.

"My name…is Maseru Aoki." The man replied.

"Why would you tell me your name so easily? Any ninja wouldn't do something like that. Are you a fool, old man?" Itsuka asked as she glared at him. She made sure not to let her guard down.

Maseru smiled at the brunette. "No, and I'm not as old as you think. Unlike other ninja, I can tell you my name no matter what because I'm not like those other fools. Plus, I have been watching your techniques and I am quite impressed."

Itsuka smirked. _This man is just asking to be defeated. _"Want to fight and see more?!" She questioned.

"Why not?" Maseru Aoki got into a fighting stance and nodded.

"Well then, let's have fun!" She said and put her hand forward ushering for him to come as Maseru began to charge her at great speed.

**--**_**The Forest**_**--**

A dark-haired boy sped through the forest. He was trying to catch up with the Sand Siblings and finish his fight with the red-head boy, Gaara. If he stopped, they would be able to get away and that was something he could not let happen. One of them, Kankuro, had tried to stop it earlier, but Shino, another leaf-nin, was facing him now.

He caught sight of them nearby and stopped in a tree above them. The boy watched as Gaara's older sister, Temari, tried to help him up but he merely brushed her aside and she slammed onto a nearby tree hard. Gaara looked up at the boy who was now leaning against a tree; his face expression was serious.

"What's wrong? You're not afraid of me, are you, Uchiha Sasuke?" He asked but the dark-haired boy did not reply. Gaara held his head and tried to stand up steadily.

"Gaara!" His sister managed to shout. "Don't fight! We need to get back!"

"Shut up!" He hissed. "AARGH!" Gaara yelled in pain. The beast inside of him was going to be released anytime soon. He covered his face, screaming at the top of his lungs. His head was titled back, arms in front of his body like claws. Temari turned her head away from her younger brother's sight; it was scary to watch his transformation because he acted so differently…like a monster.

Sasuke readily watched as a beastly hand appeared on his back and half of his face had evolved into part of the One-tailed Shukaku. His now third arm reached out to grab Sasuke but missed as he avoided it. "Come on! Fight!"

Gaara kept on going hoping to make him tired; Gaara's third hand began knocking the trees to keep Sasuke going and make sure there was no place for him to hide. He stopped; only a few trees were left standing and Sasuke hid behind one of them. The Uchiha pondered what to do next. "Come out, come out Sasuke." Gaara called looking at the remaining places he could have hid. "I won't let you get away, you can't escape me."

_This is unreal. His strength is off the charts. _"Are you just going to hide and be a weakling? Let's fight already!" A weakling. It made Sasuke think of his brother and how much he wanted to get his revenge for the death of his Clan; it was something his brother would say to him. All the Uchiha's - including his parents - murdered in one night by his own brother, Itachi. He had to avenge them and become stronger.

The insults from Gaara were only pushing him to fight; Sasuke stood up and formed a hand sign while running forward to Gaara, taking a deep breath. "Fire Style! Fireball Jutsu!" Out came a fireball from his mouth and hit the red-haired boy. But to his dismay, it didn't seem to affect him.

He darted from tree to tree, closing in on the red-head and throwing several kunai at him; they absorbed into his beast form. But his plan was about to backfire. "Here, you can have them back!" Gaara told him and threw the kunai back at them, but with fire.

Sasuke covered his face and managed to evade the fire. He quickly formed a quick hand sign and headed towards Gaara. A bolt of lightening was placed into his hand and he held it up towards the red-head boy. "Chidori!" It hit Gaara's sand arm, slicing it in half. The result was to watch Gaara scream in agony. Sasuke smirked. _Looks like it worked._

But really, Gaara's arm was forming again, it was sand after all. _No way, _He thought as he stood up. Sasuke took deep breaths and began doing the same hand sign again, running towards Gaara.

The Uchiha boy just managed to land on the next tree. He took deep breaths and dropped to his knees, grabbing his neck in pain. _Not the curse mark again. _Sasuke thought. He tried to move his body but couldn't. Gaara growled in anger and charged forward at the dark-haired boy. There was nothing Sasuke could do as the red-head boy ran towards him at such a great speed…

**--**_**Back in Konoha**_**--**

After much fighting, both opponents looked at each other wearily but still stood their ground. Itsuka was still trying to find a way to weaken him but from every kick and punch she tried at him from her Taijutsu, it just wasn't working. It was as if he could read her moves before she did it. But compared to her, Maseru however was impressed; this girl was actually giving him a challenge and he was beginning to feel tired. Itsuka could see he was definitely tired. "Getting tired, are we?" She taunted.

"I don't know who you are kid," Maseru said. "But I am definitely going to destroy you now." He put his hands together and suddenly everything surround them was engulfed in darkness as if they were in a different dimension.

_What's going on? _She thought to herself. _Genjutsu, no! _"Argh!" She yelled and held her head, falling to the ground. Memories of the undying pain from a loved one, blood from that dead person and betrayal from someone she thought she could trust clouded her thoughts now. No matter what, she tried to think about something else but whatever Maseru was doing was working and she could no longer concentrate.

_Had enough? _Maseru whispered inside her head.

"Leave me alone!" She yelled. Wherever she looked, the images repeated continually in front of her and wouldn't go away. A painful memory suddenly came into Itsuka's mind. One she thought she could forget forever. A little girl, her, running away from the home because of a secret she knew. She thought she could escape when ninja attacked Itsuka and she had to fight them off with her last strength. She could remember the blood everywhere and her own self collapsing afterwards.

_So, you're Itsuka. I have found you. _Maseru said inside her head.

"Stop please!" She shouted, shaking her head furiously. "I give up! Please just stop it all!"

_Very well. Mind Genjutsu – cancel! _Just like that, the darkness vanished and went back to normal to the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Itsuka took deep breaths before standing up once again, glaring at the man before her.

"You…Why did you do that?"

"None of your business, little girl; or should I say Golden Dragon." Itsuka growled at the man when he called her that. She wanted no one to know about that name. "I'm sorry that I have to leave but I'll be back. Now that we have found you after all these years. I guess the rumors have been true about you getting stronger." Maseru took one last look at Itsuka. "Until next time, Golden Dragon." He said before fleeing.

_We? Who is he referring to? _"Get back here!" Itsuka got up, going in pursuit of the sound ninja. She threw a kunai at his arm and just missed her target; she growled in frustration and picked it up as Maseru dodged past it and escaped.

Once again, the ground began to rumble. Itsuka lost her balance on the tree and fell on the ground. _What now? _She thought as she jumped back on the tree to the highest branches. She saw a large toad with a blonde-haired boy on top of him.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He yelled and in seconds, a thousand duplicates of the blonde-haired boy started to attack the one-tailed beast in anyway they could. Many failed and were thrown off the beast. _Amazing, _Itsuka thought.

"Let me help." Itsuka butted in, looking at the blonde-haired boy from a tree. "Hey, spiky!" Itsuka called, standing opposite in front of her.

"I'm not spiky! The name is Uzumaki Naruto! Who are you anyways?" He asked her.

"Namie Itsuka." She told him. "I've got a plan to stop Gaara but it will involve you using your shadow clone Jutsu."

"Wait a second. How do you know Gaara?"

"We're acquaintances. I used to live in the Sand Village."

Naruto pointed to her leaf ninja headband. "Then how come you have the same headband as me?"

"Incoming!" Gamabunta yelled, darting out of the way before the Shukaku dived at them.

"I'll explain who I am, do you want to know the plan or not?" Itsuka asked, starting to get annoyed. He nodded in agreement and listened to her.

Once the curse mark's pain ceased, Sasuke stood up slowly and was informed by Kakashi's summoned dog, Pakkun, the current events since he fought. The Uchiha boy was watching from the trees as the mighty toad tried to take out the One-Tailed Shukaku. His attention turned to the brown-haired girl on Gamabunta. He could just make out her hair color and some of her appearance. She seemed to be very unique to anyone he had ever seen and Sasuke guessed she was not originally from here so instead, he continued to watch as the brown-haired girl stood in front of the One-Tailed Shukaku.

"Sorry, Gaara!" She said and began to form another hand sign. "But it looks like me and Naruto are going to have to take you out!"

Itsuka bought her hands to her body once again. She closed her eyes and almost instantly, opened them in a flash. The One-Tailed Shukaku found itself in a tight electrical barrier. Itsuka's eye color changed from blue to yellow like lighting.

The brown-haired girl slammed her hands down on the ground. Electric currents were going up the one-tailed beasts' body and now electrocuting it! After a while, Itsuka let it go and disbanded the barrier. The One-Tailed Shukaku yelled in pain. She smirked but kept her distance from the creature. Her eyes had changed back to her regular color.

Unexpectedly, the One-Tailed Shukaku used its tail to hit flick her off at full-force and she fell backwards landing hard on the tree. She watched as Gamabunta went back and fought the One-Tailed Shukaku, trying hard to distract it. Itsuka winced at the pain on her arm; the Shukaku's attack had left her with a pounding headache and an open wound on her arm.

Itsuka ignored her injuries and armed herself with three kunai in place; two in her hand and one in her mouth ready to attack. Arms back, Itsuka ran at the beast and threw one at each of its sides. Itsuka spotted Gaara on its left side; he looked like he was unconscious and had half his body stuck inside the Shukaku. She gasped and tried to land another kunai in the Shukaku's tail. It missed.

The Shukaku screamed in pain and tried to find Itsuka's position on its body. She ran towards Naruto and the toad. "I know where Gaara is! He's on the left side of Shukaku's body. You have to stop him!"

"Got it!" The blonde-haired boy said, putting two thumbs up. "Let's go Gamabunta!" The toad sprang into action heading to the other side of the Shukaku.

"Hey Gaara! Gaara!" He shouted hoping to get his attention, but it seemed the red-head couldn't hear him.

"Naruto!" Gamabunta said. "I don't think he can hear anything right now especially since he's summoned the Shukaku, it is draining his body, we'd better make this quick because the Shukaku has spotted us!"

"I've had enough!" Naruto yelled and ran over to Gaara. The One-Tailed Shukaku was still being distracted and didn't know that unexpectedly, the spiky-haired boy had head-butted Gaara hard. Blood poured slowly down from his head and the One-Tailed Shukaku began to crack and break to pieces.

It was as if that was to be done to stop Gaara. Itsuka breathed a sigh of relief, accepting this. "Finally!"

Sasuke had kept his distance, but now he was making his way to where Itsuka was. The Uchiha boy jumped onto one of the trees and noticed her right away. "Hey, you!" He said running towards where the brunette girl was. "Who are you?"

The Kunoichi tumbled backwards, her head was still aching and there was a loss of blood where Gaara's one-tailed beast had injured her, not only that but Itsuka's chakra was running low. Her body felt limp and she grew tired; she dropped from the branch and was now tumbling towards the ground. Sasuke saw this and acted quickly; he jumped off and caught her just in time. "I've got you!" He told her. It was the last thing Itsuka heard before everything went dark. Sasuke got a good look at her face, before her eyes closed; he could see they were a sea blue color.

**--**_**Orochimaru's Hideout**_**--**

"Namie Itsuka was there; I definitely saw her, my lord. She has grown and become stronger." Orochimaru had fled along with his Sound Four, and any other Sound Ninja survivors and one of them told their lord of the girl summoning the Golden Dragon. "She came unexpectedly but our men fought hard and sadly died." Maseru told him.

"Hm. I see. You are dismissed." He told the Ninja and thought about it for a while. Orochimaru had run-ins with Namie before. Maybe it was time he captured her.

"What are you planning, my lord?" A distant voice asked from his side - it was Kabuto, his personal assistant.

"I am still carrying on with the plan however I need Itsuka."

"But I thought you were planning on getting Sasuke Uchiha's body?" Kabuto suggested.

"I am but I also need the power of the Golden Dragon too. We can get both but let's focus on Itsuka for the time being. She is trying to start a new life in Konoha, if she refuses, we can always expose her and Itsuka would hate that. Send some ninjas to spy on them and get them to report back first."

"Yes, my lord." Kabuto said and left immediately.

**--**_**At That Moment**_**--**

_Flashes of memories past through his mind. Whether they were good or not, they would remain with him eternally, he had done his best to help other people and touched so many lives with his wisdom and advice._

_Because now, the Third Hokage had fallen to his death but he would live forever through people's memories and hearts forever._

_Now, a new tale would be beginning for Itsuka Namie and Team 7…_

**A/N:** _Just wanted to say that I have been watching Naruto for six months now and I know that's not a long time since more people are Naruto-tards or others have watched it since it has started but I have been re-watching the episodes of the Invasion of Konoha and trying to write the way it is. _

_Still think I could have done better but I will let you review it and tell me for yourself._

_Stay tuned for the next chapter. Thank you for reading and I hope you can comment on how my story was and how I can __**improve**__. __**Please review! **__Thanks for reading yet again!_


	2. Familiar to the Uchiha Eye

A/N: T

**A/N:** _ This chapter has been released today, on my __**birthday**__ and also when Berryz Koubou's new song, Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance is released! Thanks to __.xXx.emo.love.snakebites.xX...__, __Basic Imperfection__, __dragon00nick__, __DigiAnimeArtist__**, **__Aquaticmage__, __Moonlight-Arashi__, __hopeisallihave__ and __MadnessinmyMethod__ for reading my last chapter and giving me advice for it. _

_The other day, I watched the a few episodes of Naruto for research. I recently edited the last chapter due to those advice reviews too that people gave me to improve. Oh yes and if you are having trouble figuring out what Itsuka's hairstyle is like, look at Yuna from Final Fantasy X-2 or Ray Kon from Beyblade. I'm not very sure I explained that very well._

_Well, enjoy the next chapter of Mysterious Blue!_

**Chapter 2: Familiar to the Uchiha Eye**

**--**_**Flashback: Four Years Ago**_**-- **

_A young Itsuka ran home happily to her sensei's dojo, nothing could change her mood from the news she was given from the Ninja Academy, and she couldn't wait to tell her sensei the news. Itsuka had graduated early because of her so called 'above-than-high scores'; it was unknown to anyone how she managed to do it and became the youngest student to graduate since Itachi Uchiha. But no matter what, she had become a ninja now and was extremely pleased._

_Drops of water suddenly began to fall on her cheeks and Itsuka stopped to look at the sky and noticed it was beginning to pour. She hoped it wouldn't rain today especially in her mood. As the rain was starting to get heavy, she stopped underneath a shelter and formed a sign with her hands and immediately, a giant bubble surrounded Itsuka and pulled her in. This was one of the water Jutsus she had learned from her sensei._

_In a few minutes Itsuka came to a small dojo where she and Hiroshi lived. Before disbanding the water Jutsu, she could feel something was wrong when she opened the door. She walked in and felt it, the place was too quiet and there were no lights on. "Hiroshi-sensei, I'm back!" She yelled but got no reply back. Itsuka walked over to the door to his bedroom. _

_Slowly turning the door and opening it, Itsuka gasped. There, in front of her eyes, was her sensei, Hiroshi Taka's lifeless body. A samurai sword was plunged in his back and was in a pool of blood._

_Her heart racing, breathing became difficult as she walked over and collapsed next to Hiroshi's side. Carefully, she touched his neck to check his pulse but as she already guessed; nothing. He was dead and his body was cold. "Sensei…" She whispered, putting her hands on her mouth and choking on her own tears. "Hiroshi-sensei." Itsuka sat there for a while rocking back and forth with her hands holding tightly onto her legs._

_What could she do? She had little medical experience at the time and didn't know what to do. "Who would do such a thing?" She whispered. _

"_You should know." A voice whispered back. Immediately, Itsuka stood up and looked around; no-one was in the room expect her. 'It couldn't be…could it? He couldn't have found her, could he?' She thought._

"_Who's there?" She asked, but got no reply, only the sound of a knife thrown in her direction caught her attention but missed Itsuka by inches. It was the only answer she got to make her flee._

_Itsuka backed up slowly in fear and then ran out of the room but then felt a cold hand grab her and then put her in somewhere dark – a bag! She squirmed and shouted for the person to release her but the last thing Itsuka could remember was her being knocked against something hard and she fell unconscious…_

**--**_**End of Flashback**_**--**

That happened to Itsuka just a few months after arriving in Konoha. She awoke instantly and looked around; she was surrounded in a room with nothing but empty beds around. _Where exactly am I? _Itsuka thought as she pulled the covers off, she winced in pain when she stood; the brunette pulled the bottom of her top up and saw a snitching on her belly and on her arm. _No wonder I can't stand properly, my head still aches. _

Her injuries weren't going to stop Itsuka from slowly walking over to the window and a sign caught her sight. _Konoha Hospital, _telling her where she was with no question. Shenoticed something strange as she looked around the village – this was one the main villages in the land and there were only a number of people around, cleaning up and rebuilding their homes. Her mind went back to the events of yesterday, Itsuka remembered Gaara had transformed into the One-Tailed Shukaku and she had managed to defeat him along with a hyperactive, blonde boy whose name she could not recall at the moment.

There was bound to be nurses checking on her in a while and she had to get out of here to find out where everyone was and Itsuka didn't like feel like being some sitting duck. Opening the window, she climbed out and jumped from the hospital floor to the tree opposite her room and then landed on the ground safely. She looked around at the familiar streets she once played on as a child; the places Itsuka used to eat in. The brunette girl stopped and watched her surroundings carefully. Even though not many were around and the shops were closed, she had caught a flash of something or someone nearby but whatever it was, it disappeared.

The thought quickly passed when Itsuka could hear somewhat whimpering close by, she was intrigued because it could be the person who was following her. The brown-haired girl ignored her painful headache and arm injuries to walk over there, the whimpering was instead crying and now she could see from the top of the stairs people dressed in black – a funeral. Itsuka noticed a white rose tree nearby and picked up a rose, it was natural to bring one to a funeral and she wanted to pay respect. She wondered whose it was and began walking up. Itsuka gasped when she saw it was the Hokage's. "Hey look!"Someone said looking at Itsuka's direction.

Sasuke turned around at the last minute and noticed it was that same girl who had helped Naruto out. She seemed familiar yet, he couldn't make out why. However, she could still be anyone even if he had seen her before somewhere. He had to be cautious on what she said and acted, he had to observe Itsuka's ways and be alert. He watched as she walked slowly towards the Hokage's grave, her eyes on the gravestone of the Third Hokage's. _Did she used to know him?_

"Who is that?" One person whispered.

"We should keep watch of that one. She looks evil!" The people of Konoha continued to stare at Itsuka as if she was a sheep in the wrong flock, it kind of reminded Naruto at a time when he felt left out and no-one really cared about him and he knew how that felt.

The Uchiha boy kept on staring as did everyone else and did not notice that Sakura was watching him. Both were indeed curious as to who the mysterious person was. But the pink-haired kunoichi felt a little jealous of the girl. Maybe he knew her? Sakura was beginning to feel envious of her now.

Naruto thought hard, she was the girl who had helped him take out Gaara but even so, she could be an impersonator and sent to spy on their village; _it's that girl, Itsuka! She could be an ally or an enemy but…_But how could he think that? All Naruto could see was a girl his age paying respect to the Hokage of the village, what was so wrong in doing that? _She also helped me stop Gaara and the One-Tailed Shukaku so why are people treating her this way? _

Itsuka hadn't realized she was making a scene until she heard the loud talking of people behind her. "Hey!" An ANBU officer yelled. "Your part of the sound village, aren't you? You're not welcome here!"

She placed the white rose on the coffin along with everyone else's and turned around quickly to the people of Konoha. Her baby blue eyes stood out most of all; they were so different from all her features. "I'm not one of them!" The brunette hissed and pulled her leaf headband in front of her to show the villagers she was not lying. "You see!"

She walked down the stairs as chatter amongst the villagers began, Sasuke only remained quiet. "We can decide about our visitor later." One of the village elders spoke and managed to quieten everyone down. "We should firstly pay respect to the Hokage!" There was a silence as everyone did what he said and resumed what they were doing.

"Let's go now and follow her!" Naruto said to Sasuke and Sakura. But the pink-haired kunoichi stopped him and hit him across the head. "Ow! What was that for?!"

"You know we can't do that, Naruto! We're here for the Hokage and we're going to pay our respects to him, right?"

"What's Naruto thinking now?" Kakashi asked standing by his Genin pupils.

"She helped me yesterday; I could go talk to her."

"I doubt that." Kakashi replied and then turned forward.

Sakura nodded and then faced the blonde spiky-haired boy. "See? We have to stay here until it is finished. Right, Sasuke?" She turned to where the Uchiha boy was standing but he had vanished. "Sasuke?"

**--**_**Itsuka**_**--**

As Itsuka retraced her steps to the hospital room she was in, once Itsuka got into there she sighed deeply. The Hokage was the only person who could get her into the village and prove she wasn't some sort of traitor.

Seeing his funeral before her made Itsuka feel In fact, she had been emotionless throughout her childhood. The rain began to heavily fall on Konoha. It seemed that even the heavens were weeping for the Third Hokage's funeral. She remembered when she had first met him.

**--**_**Flashback: Konoha Hospital **_**--**

"_So, this is the child you found?" A man with a large hat asked another man with an animal mask on._

"_Yes sir."_

_Itsuka began to stir at the sound of the voices and her eyes fluttered open; she sat up immediately and traced the room and the people inside it. "Who are you?" She asked quietly, the new surroundings were unknown to her sapphire eyes. "Where am I?"_

"_Do not be afraid, I am the Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves." The man with the hat answered and smiled kindly at her. "You were found in the forest and injured badly. This is Konoha hospital, your wounds have been treated and you don't need to worry, you are safe here. Do you remember anything?"_

_She did remember but did not want to say anyways, no matter what these people could be working for someone evil. "I don't feel obliged to tell. But you said Konoha right?"_

_The Hokage looked at the ANBU officer and asked him to leave. He nodded at Itsuka. "Yes. Listen, if you don't want to say anything, that's fine. What is your name, child?"_

"_Itsuka." She answered quietly. "I want to ask. Do you know any information on my mother?"_

"_Your mother? Maybe we can find some information on her, what is her name?"_

"_Aria Namie." _

"_Namie? The Clan of Healers?" __The Hokage's eyes widened. "Are you sure that is your mother's name? How do you know about the Namie Clan?"_

"_I was told…by my father." Her eyes looked down for a moment and she felt hatred for what he had done to her. "But I can show you my healing jutsus." Itsuka took off one of her bandages and placed her hand gently over the cut. Concentrating hard, a white light glowed from her hand to her wounded mark and healing it quickly. The Hokage watched this in surprise. "It's only thing I can do but that doesn't really matter. You believe me, right Hokage?"_

**--**_**End of Flashback**_**--**

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" A voice from behind stopped Itsuka in her tracks and she turned around to face a boy around about her age. He had black hair and wore a black top with white shorts. The sign on the back of his shirt – Itsuka recognized it as a Clan symbol – something familiar but she couldn't quite remember the name of it. Somehow, she hadn't noticed him behind her – she hoped she wasn't forgetting her ninja skills.

"You first. Who are you?" She asked. "Why did you follow me anyways? I want to be alone." Itsuka sat back on the hospital bed, feeling she really needed to sit down and relax now.

"I followed you because I'm interesting to know who you are and I'm the person who carried you here to the hospital after yesterday, Sasuke Uchiha." He said.

"Hello." She said and bowed a little, he did save her after all. "It's nice to meet you. Thank you for saving me. Though, you didn't need too, you could have just left me to fall off the tree and break my neck if you really wanted too."

Sasuke raised his eyebrow at her. "I couldn't have, you were injured so I had to help. What's your name anyways?"

"Itsuka. Itsuka Namie."

Just then, it hit him like a rocket. That name…he remembered her now. He stopped talking and pointed at her. "Then, it is you! You're that girl, aren't you? The one that left after Hiroshi Taka died. You were talking to me at this hospital."

**--**_**Flashback: Konoha Hospital **_**--**

_It had been a few days since Itsuka was in the hospital. She was monitored daily but was able to trust a certain amount of people around the hospital._

"_Did you hear?" Someone whispered. Itsuka hid behind the wall and saw two nurses gossiping. "There's a boy here from the Uchiha Clan and apparently, he's the only one that survived that assassination." _

"_I know." The other nurse replied. "I feel so sorry for the boy; he's taking it pretty hard."_

"_What room is he is in again? Room 56, right?"_

"_Yeah, that's it."_

'_An assassination?' She thought to herself. Who was this boy they spoke of? Itsuka's curiosity led her to wander towards the room the nurses had said the boy was in. As she approached the door, it began to open slightly. Itsuka stepped back and was now face to face with a boy with black hair._

_He looked at her and then she looked at him, they stared that way for a while. "Move!" The boy pushed past Itsuka, not caring that she had fallen to the ground. _

_She picked herself up and caught his sleeve, tugging onto it. "Don't go. I know how you feel, well kind of." The boy said nothing to her as she continued. "Well not really, I was told that my clan died a little after I was born but I can manage how it must feel to be the last person and there is no-one else that can help."_

"_You have no idea how I feel. You're not the one whose clan has fallen by their…" He stopped yelling and paused, tears were falling down his cheeks. "Just leave me alone." The boy whispered._

"_I'm not going too. But I want to help you, if you want to talk at all; I'm a few doors down from you." She told him. Itsuka wasn't used to being helpful and giving advice but she wanted to help him. Sasuke could feel it in her words, in every aspect of her form. "My name is Itsuka and you are?"_

"_Sasuke. I got to go." He lied and ran away._

**--**_**End of Flashback**_**--**

Itsuka was the only girl who had bothered to try and make him feel any better. She wanted to be near him back then but now, Itsuka seemed so much different than the girl he had met.

"Oh yeah…" She replied, now sitting on the bed. "That was me back then."

"So, where did you go after Hiroshi died?" Sasuke asked curiously.

"I'm not telling you, just because we used to talk when we were 8 does not mean I'm going to tell what I have been doing in my past. We're practically strangers and will have to start all over again." Itsuka noticed his headband. "So, you passed the exam and graduated, huh?"

Sasuke nodded. A loud knock was heard on the door and a pink-haired girl popped her head in. "Sasuke, so this is where you've been!" She said looking at Itsuka.

"Hey Sasuke!" A blonde-haired boy called. "Why did you come here for? You were supposed to be at the funeral!"

The Uchiha boy sighed and pointed at the two. "These are my team-mates." One was a blonde, spiky-haired boy who had helped her yesterday fight Gaara.

"Naruto Uzumaki!" The blonde boy spoke, pointing at himself proudly. "Remember me from yesterday?"

Itsuka nodded. "Yes I do, hello."

"Well, remember my name because the next you'll see me, I'll be the next Hokage."

"I'm Sakura Haruno" Sakura said and bowed a little in respect. The second was a girl who had pink hair and green eyes; she seemed to be more sensible than Naruto was. "Um…Sasuke, maybe we should have told Kakashi-sensei where we were before we left."

"You should of." A man said, appearing in the room with a cloud of smoke around him. He had a mask concealing half his face but it seemed not a problem for Itsuka; he also had slate hair and wore a green jumpsuit like the other ninjas in the room. "I was wondering where you were." He noticed Itsuka and turned his attention towards her. "I'm Kakashi Hatake and you must be the girl everyone is talking about? Naruto tells me you helped him out?"

She nodded. "Yes."

Just then, the door opened and a tall man wearing a green jumpsuit similar to Kakashi's walked in with a ninja with an animal mask on. He had a scar on his face and looked at Itsuka seriously.

"I am Ibiki Morino, commanding officer of the Konoha ANBU Torture and Interrogation Force. I demand to know who you are and your business here."

Itsuka sighed and looked away. "Must I always introduce myself to every single person who wants to know who I am?"

"I asked for your name!"

"Itsuka Namie."

The ANBU officer gasped when they heard her last name. "Namie? The Clan of Healers? I thought they were all killed 12 years ago."

She nodded. "Yes, well…I'm the last of them. I used to live here with a man by the name of Hiroshi Taka."

"The old man?"

Itsuka nodded. "Yes. But, he was killed and I don't know who but…" She paused, trying to remember. "…when I woke up, I was in the desert. From there, I wandered until I got to the Sand Village."

"Strange, people pronounced you dead but you did leave the village without permission. As soon as your wounds heal, Itsuka Namie, you must go."

"I left here because I was kidnapped and left for dead in the deserts, I was only eight."

"Yet, why did you not come back? Were you not taught about this after graduating before most of the Genin?"

Itsuka bit her lip; he was right and she would be called a traitor for leaving at such a young age even if it wasn't her fault. "I know, I should have thought about it. Should have known something as simple as that. But right now, I'm asking to be a part of the village again; call me a traitor all you like, I didn't kill my sensei and I wouldn't." She explained seriously. "I have nowhere to go and have been roaming the land for a while. When I was living here, I felt like this was my home all along, I just want to stay. I promise I won't be a burden to the village."

From Sasuke's view, she said she sounded like she needed help. Her words were the truth when he looked at her sapphire eyes.

The ANBU officer thought for a moment. "I will have to discuss this with the village elders. Until we get a new Hokage…" He then pointed at the four behind him. "You will be watched until then by them. Kakashi, Itsuka will have to be assigned to Team 7 for now. Can you do this?" The Jounin nodded.

Naruto was about to comment when Sakura pulled her hand over his mouth. "Sure thing! You can count on us to take care of her" She said, letting out a fake smile. Sakura looked over at Itsuka who nodded at her but Sakura did not trust her one bit. _I got to make sure she stays away from Sasuke however._

"Thank you." She said to Sakura. The pink-haired kunoichi was taken aback by Itsuka's sudden politeness and just nodded at her. _Did she just say 'thank you' to me? No, she's just trying to be nice to me._

"I will go inform the rest of the ANBU officers about this. Kakashi, you must come to the council room. Bring any Jounins you can get. " He said and then disappeared.

"That doesn't make sense, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said loudly. A ninja team is supposed to have four people in it; three Genin and one Jounin. How is another Genin going to work?"

"Good point. Well, we will have to see how this will fair out in our next mission." He explained, looking at Itsuka. Her eyes gazed out of the window, her legs bought up to her body.

"KAKASHI!" A man wearing the same green jumpsuit shouted as he slammed the door open. His hairstyle was in a weird, short style and the man had a great, big grin on his face. "We have been given a job to do, hooray!" What do you say about making this a competition, my rival?" He turned to Itsuka and extended his hand out to her. "Hello! The name's Gai, Kakashi's rival!"

Itsuka shook it still wondering why this man was so…strange. "Itsuka Namie."

The slate-haired Jounin sighed and put his book away. "I don't have time for this, Gai. Why don't you just get Kurenai and I'll get Asuma?"

"You got it and remember! I'm in the lead by a point. This will be the biggest challenge ever!" Gai told him and with that, Kakashi's _rival_ disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

_Wow, Bushy Brow's sensei is really insane! _"Wait Kakashi-sensei! Don't leave!" Naruto shouted. But he only smiled and waved at them.

"Don't worry. I'll leave you guys to get to know each other," He quickly told them, give them a thumps up before disappearing. Naruto stomped his foot in frustration as he watched their sensei leave.

**--**_**The Council Room**_**--**

In a few minutes, the village elders, Jounins and ANBU officers had been gathered up. Unlike Ibiki, the ANBU officers wore porcelain animal masks to conceal their identities. They had standard uniforms consisting of black and grey armour, arm guards, and a signature spiral tattoo on their left shoulder. A few others were wearing black cloaks over their standard uniforms, and squad leaders may wear white cloaks.

Kakashi, Guy and two other Jounins that he knew well, Kurenai and Asuma stood together with other Jounins as the village elder began to speak. "We have gathered you here to talk about a certain girl who has entered the village today. You may have seen her yesterday as she summoned the golden dragon and managed to annihilate some of the sound ninja which we are thankful for. All of you got a good look at the funeral of the Hokage today. We do not know whether or not she is a threat but I can reassure you that she is a strong ninja, most possibly B or A rank."

"If so, then why can't we tell her to just leave?" An ANBU officer asked.

"Because she wishes to stay in this village." Kakashi answered. "I have spoken to her and the girl, Itsuka Namie, only wants to be a leaf-nin again!"

"Again?" A second village elder questioned. "So then, she is a missing-nin who wishes to come back?"

"No. She left the village because she was kidnapped and left in the desert to die. This is what Itsuka says."

"Do not forget she claims to be a part of the Namie clan too and once lived here with Hiroshi Taka, he knew a few of the Namie clan's jutsus too. I have sent one of my ANBU officers to retrieve some information on her."

"I don't really see the point in bringing us all together." Kurenai spoke. "It's one girl, no big deal. All she wants to do is stay in this village."

"But a girl as young as her, who can summon the legendary golden dragon, can be a problem." The first village elder replied. "Itsuka could already be a spy for another village or worse, the Akatsuki or even Orochimaru."

"I doubt that. She's only 12." Asuma said.

"If she wishes to be a part of the village, we will have to wait until we get a new Hokage but since she is the same age as most of the participants of the Chunin Exam were; Itsuka should be placed into a Genin team and introduced to the rest of them. I suggest Team 7, Team 8 and Team 10 all spend the day with her tomorrow even if Itsuka does not want this. In order for her to get along with each Genin, she must do this." The village elders looked at Kakashi, Asuma, Guy and Kurenai. "Which one of you is going to take her in your group?"

They all looked away, hoping that the elder wasn't going to pick them all expect for Kakashi. "I will." He spoke.

The elder nodded in approval. "That will be fine, and then you shall be in charge of Itsuka now as the newest member to Team 7."

An ANBU officer rushed in towards its commander. "Ibiki-sensei! I have found some information on Itsuka Namie! It seems she has once lived in this village before and is, in fact, from the Namie Clan!"

Ibiki opened the packet in which the folder was stored and handed it over to the elders who began to read it to themselves. "It seems she might be telling the truth. The Hokage wrote that she had told him her mother was Aria Namie. We have no idea whether or not this is true because she is true and her father is unknown. Alright, she can stay for now but make sure that you are aware of her movements and anything suspicious she will do. Do not falter!" He told everyone. "Return to your daily routines immediately!"

Everyone nodded and disappeared in a flash.

**A/N:** _So, what do you think? Oh and by the way, bits of flashbacks will be revealed in each chapter and Itsuka's whole past will be revealed at the end of the story. I hope you enjoyed my second chapter, please review and tell me what you think!_


	3. Making Amends

**A/N:** _Hey everybody! Its summer holidays! This means while nearly everybody is going on holiday or relaxing, I'm doing GCSE revision. ¬¬ _

_So, at times I'm going to be sneaking a chapter especially this one. It may be harder because I have to revise._

_But I am still going to update once a month, I'm afraid, my other two stories get far better attention, that's why. By the way, I have been told that I have been doing a lot of grammar mistakes as well so I am making sure I look through each chapter and make sure they are fixed along so you, my reviewers, don't get confused. _

_Thank you to Moonlight-Arashi and who reviewed the last chapter because I appreciate it._

_Also, I want to you to tell me exactly __**where **__I make these so called grammar mistakes because I'm not good at identifying them._

**Chapter 3: Making Amends**

It had been two days since Itsuka came to Konoha and now, she was being dismissed from hospital. Her belongings were stored into the bag she had now picked up from the side of the hospital bed, most of her weapons and clothes were in there and Itsuka wanted to make sure everything was still there. The door opened and in came a nurse. "Excuse me but Kakashi Hatake has come to see you, Ms. Itsuka."

"Ok." She nodded, putting down her bag. The nurse stepped aside for the silver-haired Jounin to walk into the room and left the two to talk. Itsuka wanted to get straight down to business and not waste any time so she asked him straight away. "So, what did the village elders say then?"

"They said you could stay but like Ibiki said, you are going to be monitored daily. But on one condition; since you are the same age as most of the Genin, you will be participating with two teams of Genins for the next two days starting next week."

"Getting along with the other Genins? That's all?"

Kakashi nodded. "Yes. Simply because you are around their age, you should be able to make friends with them."

"Ok, there's no problem in doing that." Itsuka told him, though she wondered how she was going to do this.

"By the way," Kakashi said, his eyes never leaving the book he was reading, the title was 'Icha Icha Paradise' on the front. "It also means that you're going to be placed into a Genin team too; Team 7. Which means you will be working with Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. I am also your sensei for this group."

Itsuka looked at him for a moment and nodded. "Ok, I understand." Itsuka really did not want to be in a team with them. Each person had a different personality and putting them altogether was a really weird combination, especially after what happened after Kakashi left.

**--**_**Flashback: Two Days Ago**_**--**

_Sakura was the first to speak after their sensei had gone. "So Itsuka, where do you come from?" Sakura asked quickly and a smile plastered on her face for some reason._

"_I lived in Sunkagure for the past four years." Itsuka then narrowed her eyes at Sakura. _

"_So, that's how you knew Gaara!" Naruto said._

"_But what about your family? Do you have any brothers or sisters at all?" Sakura asked ignoring Naruto._

_Itsuka looked away from her. "I'm an only child and that's all I have to say."_

"_What about your parents?"_

_Itsuka did not speak and just looked out the window. "You know, you ask too many questions. I don't want to say."_

"_Does it bother you that much? We can always leave." Sasuke questioned. He wanted to test her and see what she was going to say._

_She looked at Sasuke and sighed. "I won't stop you. I'm not much of a talker anyways."_

"_I see." Sakura said, ending the conversation. She figured the girl did not want to talk about it but also she did not like the way Itsuka was talking to 'her' Sasuke. "Maybe we should, Sasuke are you ready?"_

_He stood up slowly and walked to the door with Naruto following close behind. "See you later, Itsuka!" Sakura said and then closed the door._

**--**_**End of Flashback**_**--**

Although she remembered Sasuke from her past, they were still going to have to start again. If Itsuka's team-mates were going to be a pink-haired fan-girl and an energetic blonde, then she would have a hard time getting along with them. She wondered how Sasuke dealt with the two. "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you." Kakashi said before leaving. "We've managed to find you your own apartment, it's clean but there's not much furniture inside."

"That's fine. Do you mind if I have a look around town for a while?" She asked. "I want to explore the market area."

The silver-haired Jounin looked at her and nodded. "Of course. I'll send Sakura to go get you in about half an hour to take you to your apartment. Is that enough time?"

"Yes. Sensei?"

"What is it?" Kakashi asked before walking out the room.

"Thank you…for making me welcome." She said and bowed at him.

"No problem." He spoke before leaving.

**--**_**The Market**_**--**

Konoha's market place was bustling with crowded customers and many traders were encouraging the locals to buy their most eye-catching valuables on sale. Prices were either outrageous or ridiculously easy to purchase. Some of their finest pots were shined perfectly and clothes ranged from every colour Itsuka could think of.

She didn't think she was very much interested in the items being sold but she did look back a couple of times at some things that caught her eye and it was mostly the gold things. As she walked out of the market, Itsuka prepared herself for the looks from people as she passed them just like when she first came to Sunkagure as she walked calmly down the streets.

Itsuka heard a grunt from the side of her and stopped. She looked over at a man struggling to put a table down. "Let me help you." Itsuka walked up to him and picked up the other side safely placing it on the ground before he dropped the whole thing.

"Oh thank you for your help." The man's eyes met with Itsuka as he realized who she was. "Ah, so you're that new girl who came to the Hokage's funeral today? You made quite a scene when you left."

Itsuka sighed. "Yes well, I know who I am and I know I'm not from the sound village." She told him. "Anyways, I should be going Mr…?"

"Teuchi, you can call me Teuchi. I actually own this shop right here." He pointed to the shop next to him, the sign at the top read _Ichiraku Ramen. _"Since you helped me out, let me treat you to a free bowl of Ramen of your choice."

_Tempting, _Itsuka thought. _But…I have other things to do. _"Sorry, maybe later."

Teuchi nodded. "That's no problem, I'll remember your free bowl and if I don't, I'm still going to tell my daughter Ayame about you. Since she has a better memory than me." The ramen owner said before walking away to his shop.

_So far, so good. _She thought to herself and turned back the way she came only to bump into someone. Itsuka looked up and came face to face with two men; both were wearing long, dark cloaks with red clouds on them.

"Sorry about that." One of them said. The bells atop of the man's hat and chimed when both he and Itsuka passed each other, their eyes met for a moment and she saw they were somewhat familiar. The second figure looked forward and she could just about make out that his face looked kind of like a shark.

_That was strange, _She thought. Itsuka got a bad feeling from them, like there was a strong aura of evil on both of them and she couldn't let them get away. But when the kunoichi turned around, they had disappeared. "Damn!" She said aloud.

"Itsuka!" The brunette turned her head around to see Sakura walking towards her.

"Yes?"

"I take it your finished then. Do you buy anything you liked?"

She shook her head. "No."

"Don't worry; you can get something another time!" Sakura said with a smile on her face. "Oh, and I wanted to apologize about asking Sasuke so many questions yesterday; I hope you can forgive us all."

Itsuka watched her with an emotionless expression before nodding at her. Why was she apologizing for Sasuke? "You're forgiven."

"Great!" Sakura said quickly. "I'll take you to your apartment I should take you to where Sasuke lives, Itsuka, you'll love it! I've heard it's so big; I wish I was living there with him." Sakura commented and squealed in happiness.

"Does he live alone, Sakura?" She watched the pink-haired girl nod. "I see."

Sakura continued to talk about the Uchiha boy as they walked and why she thought he was so _great_ or so the pink-haired kunoichi would say. She was strange, no doubt. Itsuka wondered why Sakura was talking about him so much. Instead, Itsuka began to think what she could do while she was in Konoha and she had to admit; it wasn't such a bad place. All she really liked to do was train every so often but normally she would do it with a partner.

Only problem was, making friends which was one of the hardest things she could do – Itsuka wasn't a very social person that's why placing her in a group wouldn't be such a good idea. Somehow, she managed to push them away. Right now, she felt calm but that was only at this moment. However, Itsuka was going to give it a try now – to make friends with the Genin.

"We're here, Itsuka!" Sakura announced leading Itsuka to her flat and giving her the key to open the door. They both stepped inside and gazed at the apartment she would be living in. It was a simple apartment with wooden furniture settled in and seemed untouched.

"Let me help you pack!" Sakura said from the hallway. Itsuka thought the pink-haired girl had gone but instead was still behind her.

"It's alright; it's only one bag." Itsuka told her and held up the bag to prove so just in case she didn't believe her.

"Still, let me help you."

"Uh…listen. I'm going to the bathroom quickly. Can you make sure no-one and that also mean you touches my stuff okay?" Itsuka told Sakura and walked out the room.

"Okay!" Sakura cheerfully replied and smiled as she left. But as soon as Itsuka turned the corner, the pink-haired kunoichi pulled a face and stuck her tongue out. _Who does she think she is? Telling me what to do? _Her inner self thought angrily. _One of these days… _Sakura pretended to throw a kick in the air but hit Itsuka's bag resulting in most of her things falling on the ground. She bent down to pick them up as quickly as possible before Itsuka got back when a foot stood in her way. Her eyes trailed up to look at the boy she had a crush on – Sasuke.

"Sasuke, what are you doing here? How did you get in?"

"Through the window. Where's Itsuka?"

"She went to the bathroom." She replied. This was his chance now to see who she really was. Sasuke was going to take this opportunity to raid her bag.

"What are you doing, Sasuke?! That's Itsuka's things!" Sakura said. Although Sakura thought Itsuka was trying to steal him away from her, she didn't think what Sasuke was doing was good but she made no move to stop him from going through the brown-haired girl's bag.

"You never know. After we talked to her, didn't Kakashi say we had to make sure she was a spy or anything?"

"Yeah, but…" She was kind of angry that Sasuke was so interested in Itsuka and not her.

"What the…?"

"What is it, Sasuke?"

Sasuke picked up the object and observed it closely. It was a picture of a woman with brown hair with blue eyes, similar to Itsuka's features. _She said she had no siblings, could this be her…?_

"She looks just like her. Who do you think that is, Sasuke?" Sakura asked.

The brunette came back to the room and gasped. "Hey! What are you doing?!" She put her hand out. "Give it back!"

"Is that…your mother by any chance?" He asked.

She simply nodded. "Yes, but I would appreciate it if you didn't look at my things."

"Hn." Retorted Sasuke. "Then how am I supposed to trust you? I have no idea what you could have become so I have to make sure we're all not living with someone ready to kill us!"

Itsuka stopped and then turned around, glaring at the Uchiha. "I'm not a sound ninja for the last time! I'm outta here!" She got up and quickly picking up her bag, took a deep breath, exhaled and then headed towards out of the apartment. The brown-haired girl looked over at one of the buildings and could visibly see an ANBU officer watching her every move as she walked towards the training field. _How long will they keep watching me? _Itsuka thought, taking another look back at the ANBU black op. She didn't like the fact of being watched all the time and that people were afraid of her.

Still, Sasuke had made her feel worse now; he didn't have a right to look through Itsuka's things. She felt angry and mostly sad, something she hadn't felt in a while because no-one trusted her. In fact, most of the time she would keep an emotionless face. But it was only because of her past – way before Sunkagure. Would she be able to tell them one day? She needed to let off some steam and train a little first.

"Sasuke! That was mean!" Sakura said although really she didn't mean it and wanted Sasuke to carry on. "You should apologize to her!"

"I'll do it when I'm ready." The Uchiha boy proceeded out of the room and towards the door which Sakura had no choice but to follow.

"Where are you going then?"

"To get some takeaway, I'm hungry."

**--Ichiraku Ramen--**

The streets lamps were beginning to light up as the sun's last beams of light faded turning the sky to the moon and stars. Still, Konoha's people still roamed around the shops and restaurants. At Ichiraku Ramen, Kakashi and Asuma were eating and discussing the new Genin, Itsuka.

"You can't let your guard down, Kakashi." Asuma told him.

"I'm not. I just have a feeling that she can't be as bad as everyone thinks. It's as if she's a normal girl trying to fit in but no-one will accept her."

Asuma thought hard before replying. "Sounds like…"

"Naruto, I know." He said before paying the bill and walking out of the shop with his Jounin friend. "Trust me; I know what I'm doing."

Asuma Sarutobi looked at Kakashi with a worried look. As ninja, they weren't supposed to let their guard down at their enemies whose moves were unknown to them.

But Kakashi had a plan and he would just have to trust the copy ninja for now; he wanted to see how this girl would react with his Genin students and show that Itsuka wasn't an enemy of Konoha. Without noticing, Asuma bumped into someone and looked down to see two of Kakashi's students; Sakura and Sasuke. His Uchiha student seemed to be carrying a box of food with him too.

"Asuma-sensei! Sorry about that!" Sakura apologized, bowing her head a little.

The sliver-haired Jounin smiled at his student. "That's ok. Where is your new team-mate now?"

"She seems…fine." Sakura replied.

"What do you mean by that?" Asuma asked curiously. "Was she acting suspicious at all?"

"Um…" Sakura thought hard and then looked at Sasuke who answered for her.

"I looked through one of the pictures she had in her bag and well, it was of a woman that had blue eyes and brown hair resembling Itsuka. She said it was her mother and then left so we're trying to find her." Sasuke told him.

"You don't suppose you have the picture on you right now?" Asuma asked. Sakura shook her head. "I see. Never mind then."

"Asuma." Kakashi sent a glare at the Jounin and then looked back at his Uchiha student. "Sasuke, you shouldn't be going through Itsuka's things like that, her most important things were in there so you shouldn't have."

Sasuke let out an 'hn' to Kakashi who looked at him for a brief moment and then back at Sakura. "We're going to go. You'd better find Itsuka soon." Kakashi told them before leaving with Asuma.

A number of kunai's and shruiken lay on the ground around Itsuka. She sat down and stared at the sky; her panting could be heard loudly. That calmed her and she had also done some training today, though it wasn't as good as when she did it with a partner.

"What happened out here?" A voice asked from behind her. Itsuka looked to her side and saw Sakura and Sasuke watching.

"Training."

"You were training?" Sakura asked.

Itsuka raised her eyebrow. _Doesn't she know I'm a ninja like her? _"Yeah. It's another way for me to work off my anger."

"Oh ok." There was a short silence as Itsuka walked back to collect her ninja equipment from the ground. The silence still continued between them until Sakura talked eventually "It's getting late; I'm going to go now. See you guys tomorrow!" Sakura waved goodbye to the two who watched her leave.

"Let's just go okay?" Itsuka was expecting an apology but because she was too tired to complain, she let it slide and just followed him back.

Sasuke led her back to her apartment. He didn't receive a thank you on the way and just shrugged it off and walke back to the Uchiha manor. He was still bothered by Itsuka earlier and was not going to say sorry for what he did. At this moment, Itsuka was quiet but she seemed to be cold and emotionless to Sakura and himself but there was something strange about her just now while looking in her eyes.

Underneath her cold ways, Itsuka was obviously hiding something about herself that she didn't want anyone to know of. He just had to find a way to make her talk about it…

**A/N:** _The sooner you review the sooner I update and the more reviews I receive the more I write – got this from the author of Vengeful Love and it is true. So please review!_


	4. Acceptation and Trust

**A/N:** _Is it me or are you tired of reading stories that start out exactly like the series? I know I read some stories that are quite good with SasukexOC's who are like that (e.g. __**Vengeful Love, Regret, Unexpected **__etc.) but the ones that aren't very good should be rewrote or at least change the beginning._

_I __**re-wrote all the previous chapters **__**including**_ _this chapter so I took out a lot for other reasons, you may want to re-read if you like. Because the changes include:_

_Itsuka moving into her own apartment_

_The Golden Dragon has been taken out but it will be back in further chapters_

_Because the Golden Dragon is taken out, parts have been re-wrote_

_This has all been changed on __**29th August 2008.**_

_Thanks to anyone who read the last chapter and here's chapter 4, which is a bit more interesting than the last, please bare with me on my OC, Itsuka is not supposed to be Mary-Sue so bit by bit, you will learn she isn't and has some weakness, I'm not trying to create an all-powerful being. There will also seem to be a friendly relationship going on between Itsuka and Naruto but there will be more Sasuke and Itsuka in the next chapter. Enjoy this next chapter for now; it's a bit better than the last three!_

**Chapter 4: Acceptation and Trust **

The sunlight hit Itsuka's sleeping form the next day. She groaned at the sun beaming down on her and rubbed her eyes gently. Itsuka lifted herself out of her bed and headed to the bathroom. Once the hot water hit her, she began to think that even though it had been a few weeks, Konoha wasn't such a bad place apart from the people continually staring. Still, Itsuka was beginning to like this place; she was getting adjusted to her new team too. This was all Itsuka wanted. To be a normal twelve year old girl who lives in one place and goes on regular missions with her team-mates.

But Itsuka knew she could never be normal since birth, she knew that now. After she finished her cereal, Itsuka locked the door and began her walk to Konoha gates where she was going.

For Sakura, since there were no missions today, she thought she would go and see Sasuke. Naruto had left with Jiraiya to go train and they wouldn't be back for a while. Ino was also occupied with a mission so there was no way her blonde-haired rival could stop Sakura from approaching his house. She grew excited as she got to his front door and rang the door bell. Sasuke got up thinking it was the ramen he had ordered. But when he opened the door, he found Sakura instead. "Hey there, Sasuke!"

The Uchiha boy let out a groan and now wishing he had never opened the door in the first place. "What is it?" He answered.

"I thought we could hang out seen as Itsuka has finally gone." Sasuke sighed deeply and walked away from the door. When they were on missions, Sakura would always bug him with annoying questions. Ino would be the second person to escape from and combining the two of his fan-girls was even worse. It was enough that she was planning on bothering him on his day off. "Do you need help fixing your house after what the sand and sound ninja did or maybe we can go eatsomewhere?"

Sasuke sighed. This was going to be a long day to shake her off…

**--**_**Itsuka**_**--**

"Where is this place?" Itsuka asked herself. She had come to the street where the restaurants were at the third time. _Haven't I been here before? _She sighed to herself and scratched the back of her head. "Where is this gate?"

"Ah! So this is where you've been!" She turned around to see Kakashi reading his book. "You're lost, aren't you?"

She sighed in defeat. "Yes, I have no clue where I am or how to get to the entrance." Itsuka admitted. "That's only because when I got here, I was following sand ninja."

"You followed sand ninja here?" Kakashi asked as he began leading the way.

"Yeah. I rested in the village in between Sunkagure and Konohagure and saw them going in the direction of Konoha, that's how I got here."

"I see." They stayed in silence for a few minutes until Kakashi decided to talk, he wondered what his new student's techniques were like. "By the way, since I am your sensei, I need to know what Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Taijutsu you know. Which ones are you good at and which do you lack in?"

"I guess…" She thought for a moment, people were afraid of her though she wasn't good at everything. "I should tell you. I'm good with lighting based Ninjutsu and healing people is alright too. My Taijutsu isn't so bad but I lack Genjutsu and when other ninja use it against me, I'm very vulnerable. That's pretty much it."

_So, she does have weaknesses. _"I see. Well, we will have to work on I guess I better go. Help out the other Genin when they least expect it." Kakashi told her. She nodded and watched her walk off before disappearing.

"So the girl at the Hokage's funeral is the same girl we are meeting today and joining Team 7?" A boy with bugs crawling into his body said. "Interesting."

"I wonder what she's like Shino." A shy girl replied.

"Give me a break. Could this _'Itsuka' _girl really be so untrustworthy when all she did was shout at the ANBU officer, that's lame." A laid-back boy said.

"Don't be fooled, Shikamaru. You never know." Asuma replied. "Although the village elders have decided to let this 'Itsuka' stay, she's still being watched so."

"And I understand that." A voice behind them said. Asuma, Kurenai and the Genins turned around to see their late guest walking towards them calmly; Itsuka seemed to be in fear. "I'm here now and I'm sorry I made you wait long. I got lost."

"Make sure it doesn't happen again." Asuma said in a serious tone. "Right, let me introduce to our ninja groups, Team 8 and Team 10."

A woman with dark hair stepped forward and smiled at Itsuka. "My name is Kurenai Yuhi, and Team 8, I have Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame." They all nodded at her and Itsuka nodded back at them.

He turned to three Genin in his team. "If you don't know yet, my name is Asuma Sarutobi and I have Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara and Ino Yamanaka in Team 10." They all smiled at her but she just nodded at them.

"Hello, it is nice to meet you." Itsuka said. The other six Genin nodded at the brunette.

"We've got a mission to do today so not only will you be working together, but we will observe each of your individual skills." Kurenai said. "It's a B-Ranked Mission and needs all of us here to work together."

"So, what is this mission?" Shikamaru asked.

"There are bandits closing in on the outskirts of Konoha. We must stop them as soon as possible. We don't know much about them but what we do know is that they plan to raid Konoha and have made camp a few miles away from here. Half way there, we should stop to rest. Is everyone ready?" Everyone nodded.

Hours passed and the group proceeded out of the gate and were told to be aware of their surroundings. Since most of the team were close, Asuma and Kurenai enjoyed having a small talk with each other while

Choji was in the back, panting after finishing his last lag of crisps. "Can't we slow down a little? I'm hungry."

"Alright. We'll rest here for tonight." Asuma said. Everyone placed their sleeping bags on the floor and began eating some of the supplies they had prepared. Nothing happened that night as Itsuka lay in her sleeping bag and gazed at the sky. She wondered…if her mother was watching her. Before she finally drifted off to sleep, she heard the occasional bird noises and Choji snoring before turning to the side and closing her eyes.

When she woke in the morning, the Genin and Jounin were all getting ready to leave and in a few minutes, they were all on the move again. Ino walked by Itsuka glaring at her. "You got something to say?"

"Hey, you're Itsuka right?" She nodded. "I'm not happy that you are in the same team with Sasuke-kun. Sakura may be nice to you but we both hate you." What was she doing? If she was threatening Itsuka, it wasn't working at all. "Just because everyone is afraid of you doesn't mean we're not! I can't believe Sakura is actually being nice to you. I don't believe it!"

"You jealous or something?"

Ino growled. "Just stay away from my Sasuke!"

"Hey, stop fighting you two." Kiba said stepping in between them. "She's done nothing wrong!"

"I can take of myself; I don't need you butting in to my business, Kiba." Itsuka told him.

Kiba looked at her in disgust. "Hey! I'm trying to defend you so there's no need to get rude to me. Or maybe you would like to know what everyone thinks of you."

"Kiba, don't!" Hinata said. "There's no need to…"

"No! She needs to know what the people of Konoha really think about her!" Kiba shouted. Itsuka was going to know exactly what everyone thought of her. "You know why people stare at you? Because they think a girl with your features is a freak and don't want nothing to do with you!"

Itsuka's expression saddened and she looked at the ground. Ino watched her smirking in victory. _Is that what they think of me? A freak! _Her eyes directed at Kiba who was not being held anymore or even attacking her, nor Akamaru. She wasn't going to shed any tears; instead Itsuka nodded and turned her back to Kiba.

"Watch out!" She heard Shino say and turned around seeing a net trapping him and Shikamaru into it.

"Aw, great! Why were you were being so careless Shino?"

"You mean you were careless?" Shino said. "I was trying to stop you."

"Stupid leaf shinobi!" A voice spoke and out of nowhere, two bandits jumped out of the forest and smirked at the leaf ninja in front of them. "You would have thought they would have been smart enough to avoid a trap like that. Too bad you're all going to die!"

He raised his hand and a number of bandits surrounded them. Everyone got into a fighting stance and readied themselves. "Prepare yourselves! This is going to take a while!"

Itsuka made the first move taking out a number of kunai's from her pocket and throwing them at the opposing three bandits. She then charged towards the bandit's grabbed one of them and when they were distracted threw him back at the other bandit. The remaining bandit jumped and dodges the kunai and ran at Itsuka, elbowing her in the chest. Itsuka then flew back and hit a tree. The two ninja on the ground got up and ran at Kiba trying to hit the brunette in the shoulder but got bit by Akamaru. "Ow! You little runt, I'll kill that dog!"

"Not before he attacks you!" Kiba smirked. They knocked the ninja to the ground while Itsuka raised her legs up to push her off the ground before the third ninja tried to hit her while she was down and stuck her kunai into his stomach, his smirk becoming wider as he disappeared. "Itsuka, it's a Substitution jutsu. Let me and Akamaru take care of this!" Kiba yelled to her. "Fang over Fang!" A poof of smoke appeared into them and suddenly there were two Kiba's.

Not only were Itsuka and Kiba fighting, but she could hear everyone else in their own one-on-one's with the other bandits. Hinata was also fighting and dodging the shruiken that the enemy threw at her and activated her Byakugan. "Eight Palms!" Hinata immediately sprang into action and began hitting the somewhat four bandits all at once and knocking them out as quickly as she started hitting their chakra points.

Asuma and Kurenai faced off against a number of bandits as well Ino and Choji who began to face off a few more bandits. Ino took out some kunai from her pouch, secretly tying ninja wire around the holes of them and threw them at the duo bandits in front of her, making them move all around in the air. They jumped away, only to get caught in the ninja wire in the air. "You aren't getting away!" The force of something hitting the wire made the kunai change their direction and wrap around the enemies. The two bandits fell to the ground, trying with all their might to get out of the wire. Only finding they cut themselves with every struggle. "Well that was pretty easy." Ino said

"Cool! Look at Itsuka!" Choji spoke.

Itsuka brought his hands in front of his body forming a hand seal and charged at the last bandit, moving with great speed. He only stepped back and tripped over a rock, trembling in was surprised to see him move back so quickly but he wasn't going to get away with what he did. "Shocking Fist!" The bandit stood up and took out a kunai but as quickly as he threw it in the direction of Kiba, the bandit ended up with a painful electrifying punch to the face, his body fell limp to the ground. "Hey! Behind you!" Itsuka shouted and threw another kunai to block the attack. Both weapons dropped to the grass.

"That was…challenging…" Itsuka said to herself before putting her hands on her knees and taking deep breaths.

"Is everyone alright?" Kurenai asked after cutting the net with Shikamaru and Shino in it. Everyone nodded in response to the Jounin. "Good. Everyone did a good job, now all we have to do is take these bandits to the prison and I think we'll treat you to dinner."

"Alright!" Choji shouted and began quickly picking up a number of bandits. Once everybody had taken a person or two to the prison and arrived back to the Leaf village safely, they went for lunch at a local restaurant, treated by their senseis. The brown-haired kunoichi watched everyone as they talked casually, joking about with each other.

More than ever, she wanted to join them but the one thing about her was…she didn't know how to make friends well or have a good conversation with someone else, she only made one friend in her life but that ended badly. Itsuka wanted to try but something made her stop. Instead, she just carried on eating and she easily stood out like a sore thumb but she didn't care because she was used to it.

"Hey Itsuka!" She stopped eating and looked up at the person talking to her, Kiba. "I wanted to say thank you for stopping that kunai reach me and that I'm sorry about what I said. It was uncalled for. I was being a bit reckless during that fight too, wasn't I?"

"You weren't." Itsuka said quickly. "But it's ok. It's what one ninja would do for another ninja, right?"

"Yeah!" Kiba said cheerfully and returned to the conversation with the other Genin. Ino took one look at Itsuka who stared down at her food and continued to eat. The blonde looked away in disgust, unlike the others; she didn't like the brunette not one bit. She insulted Ino earlier about Sasuke and now Itsuka was stealing all the glory of impressing the sensei's back when they had beaten the bandits earlier, almost as if she was trying to earn their acceptation into being a part of the Genins, well Ino wasn't going to let that happen.

"Having a nice meal without me?" They heard Kakashi say.

"Kakashi, you should have been there!" Choji said. "Itsuka sent those ninja flying, it was amazing!"

"That's great, good work Itsuka!" Kakashi praised. "By the way, the new Hokage is to arrive here soon in about a week's time." Everyone directed their attention to the slate-haired Jounin.

"Really?" Kurenai asked. "Who is it?"

"Don't know. You'll have to wait and see."

"Which means you already know but won't talk about it right?"

Kakashi shrugged "You know me too well. Itsuka, I can take you back to your place now, ok?"

Itsuka nodded and quietly left alongside Kakashi. During the walk, it was another silence until Kakashi spoke. "Before you go home, I'd like you to help Naruto out with preparations for the new Hokage when Jiraiya and Naruto come back from their trip."

She pointed at her in disbelief. "Me? Why?"

Kakashi shrugged. "I don't know. You wouldn't mind helping out too, right?"

Itsuka nodded. "No, it will be ok."

A week had passed and as it progressed, things seemed to be moving smoothly for Itsuka. People wouldn't react to seeing the brunette walk past anymore and instead, they would just go about their business as normal now. Itsuka now had a lot of free time since there were no missions yet so she used the time to re-furnish her apartment and it was looking pretty good. It was all just in time before she went into the Hokage's office and she began to wonder about her new team-mate Naruto and how did his trip go but thought he was tired.

That is until he spotted her and started calling out her name. But after a trip, Itsuka was at least expecting Naruto to be a little calmer. "Alright!" Hearing this, she guessed wrong and assumed he wasn't tired at all. He stood in front of her with a big grin on his face. "I'm so glad they sent over someone I can talk too! Shikamaru came and told me a little about the mission but I really want to know everything, every little detail!" Itsuka sighed because for the next few hours of moving boxes, she told Naruto all about the mission including the sound ninja's surprise attack, the argument with Ino about Sasuke and how she 'saved' Kiba's life or so Shikamaru had told him.

The only thing she didn't include was what Kiba had said about her but it seemed the argument about Sasuke still ticked Naruto off. "Grr! Why do they all like Sasuke for? What's so special about him anyways?"

"Why don't you like him, Naruto?" She asked.

"He thinks he doesn't need anyone and that he's the best. Sasuke is so annoying and Sakura for some reason likes him."

"A bit too much." Itsuka replied.

"Naruto!" A man with grey spiky hair stood before them. "Tsunade wants to see you two."

"Alright, come on Itsuka!" Naruto led Itsuka to a small room where she noticed an old woman; though no-one could tell by this because she had used some sort of jutsu to make her look younger. Her blonde hair was becoming colourless and turning grey and it was tied into a ponytail.

"So, you're the girl Naruto keeps talking about. Itsuka, is it?" The woman said smiling at the brown-haired girl and then putting her hand for Itsuka to shake it. "It's nice to meet you. I am one of the legendary Sannin, Tsunade." Itsuka looked at her hand before shaking it.

But before she could reply, Naruto jumped in and put an arm around her. "That's right! My friend Itsuka, she's really cool and better than Sasuke is!" _Friend? Did he just call me his friend?_

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Itsuka spoke and then looked behind Naruto to where the other Sannin, Jiraiya stood. _So, these are the other two Sannin I have heard about. _She thought.

Tsunade looked at Itsuka before answering her. "By the way, I think I will let you stay in Konoha. You can rest for a while because your day with Team 7 and Team Guy can wait until another mission comes. I think you should rest after all you haven't for a long time, have you?" Itsuka nodded, she had been pretty busy lately. "I hope Team 7 have taken care of you properly and shown you around Konoha while I haven't been here."

"Actually, I haven't been taken around the village, I know a few places but that's all.

"Hey…? Do you want me to show you around the village?" Naruto asked meekly. She blinked a couple times, caught off guard by his generosity.

"Uh… sure." She smiled at him, as his face brightened once again, now beaming with enthusiasm.

"Okay!" Naruto yelled while punching at the air with a clenched fist, "I'm going to show you what this village is all about!" He quickly grabbed Itsuka's arm and pulled her out of the Hokage's office and into the streets, avoiding people as they went.

"Do you think anyone in this village knows who she really is?" Tsunade asked Jiraiya but he only shook her head.

"No, I think she would want to keep it quiet, her look told it all. We should talk to her and see if she is actually like Naruto says however I highly doubt that she is friendly but strong, I can believe!" He told her before leaving.

"Where are you going, Jiraiya?"

He turned around with a grin on his face. "I have to go finish my new book at the hot springs of course. I'll see you later." Tsunade shook her head in disappointment watching her old friend leave happily.

**A/N:** _Thanks for reading; the more reviews I get, the quicker I update the next chapter and after this, the storyline will get better. Also, tell me what you think but not too harsh._


	5. Wait and See

**A/N:** _Thanks to everyone for reviewing the last chapter and for anyone else who read the first chapter as new readers, thank you! It really makes me feel good with your reviews and I hope you do the same for this chapter too! I tried my best, since school has started and I'm at my last year, I've been busy with friends, exam preparations and re-doing coursework._

_I think I'm also going to change my style of writing too; I will have a limited amount of flashbacks and I won't be writing words such as, --__**Meanwhile**_-- _or_ **–**_**Later That Night**_**—**_because it's getting on my nerves. Enjoy Chapter 5!_

**Chapter 5: Wait and See**

The meeting point for the next mission was at the training grounds, this was to be her second and last day to get to know the Genins of her age. So far, she was beginning to slowly know a bit more about them and get used to being around them all. When Itsuka arrived, Team 7 was already there. Naruto and Sasuke seemed to be in an argument while Sakura watched without attempting to stop it. "You're a fool to even attempt that, jumping from the ground to the tree. Every normal person jumps from one branch to another." Sasuke told his blonde-haired team-mate.

"Oh yeah, well at least I tried." Naruto muttered as he rubbed his head and stood up. He wanted to impress Sakura not make a complete fool of himself like they thought he was doing, that's all but no matter what; she was more interested in Sasuke.

Sakura noticed Itsuka approaching them and waved at her with a smile on her face. "Oh, hi Itsuka! How was your week?" The smile was real this time, Sakura wanted to start anew with Itsuka and she wasn't going to put on any stupid acts like before. She didn't think Sasuke and Itsuka were going to be close so she could forget about warning her off but what Ino had told her about the previous mission and Naruto filling in the blanks before attempting to do a stupid jump, made her feel sorry for what happened between her and Kiba.

"It was ok." She said. There wasn't much Itsuka really did in her free time. She either trained or went out to do some food shopping. Although her life was plain, Itsuka liked it this way. She enjoyed some of the quiet nights when she was able to think and feel safe in Konoha. And since it was almost a month since she came here, Itsuka was starting to feel comfortable now and the people she had come to like especially Naruto.

Sasuke looked up from Naruto to Itsuka when she appeared. After what Naruto had told about the mission that he had been told by Itsuka and Hinata before his attempt on the trees, he couldn't see a single emotion from her face and wondered if she was hiding what she truly felt. Naruto was happy to see Itsuka's face as usual even though she seemed to be cold-hearted. Hinata had met him during the week and told him what Kiba had said to Itsuka before he apologized and he felt sorry for her.

"Hey! There's Neji and TenTen! Looks like you'll be able to meet some of Team Guy now, Itsuka." Sakura told her. There was a girl with her hair in two Chinese-styled buns and a boy walking with long, dark hair and white eyes. "Neji! TenTen! Come over here!" She called to them as they walked over to Team 7 looking directly at Itsuka. She could tell by their faces that they were suspicious of her so instead, Itsuka decided to introduce herself and nodded at them both.

"Hello, I'm Itsuka!" They seemed shocked on how quick she was.

Nevertheless, TenTen, the girl with her hair in two buns smiled and waved back. "You too, I'm TenTen and this is Neji." She pointed to the boy next to her who just nodded at Itsuka still looking at her.

A poof of smoke appeared and Kakashi emerged from it with his hands folded. "Hello everyone." He greeted.

"What the…? Kakashi-sensei, you're here early!" Naruto said in surprise.

"No excuses this time?" Sasuke asked.

"No. But where is Lee and Gai-sensei? I had to go to the Hokage's office and collect the mission information quickly today." Kakashi asked holding up the scroll in his hand and then putting it to his side.

"Present!" Just behind them stood one Genin and a Jounin, both so identical they could be father and son. They had dark hair in an small afro-style, green tops expect the Jounin, who Itsuka recognized as Gai from the hospital, was wearing a green vest like all the Jounins wore and black trousers with orange legwarmers. "Good morning everyone!" Gai and Lee chorused, wide grins on their faces. Itsuka wondered if they were always like this

"Sorry we're late. Lee and I were doing some warm-ups this morning." Gai said. "So what's the mission for today, Kakashi? Are we doing an escort? Or rescuing a kidnapped victim?"

Kakashi sighed and began opening the letter to read it:

'_**Your mission for today is D-ranked. Both teams are to help old man Shiromi promotes his new sushi shop, Sugoi Sushi. You will have hand out vouchers all around Konoha. You'll find them underneath this letter. Good luck Team 7 and Team Guy.'**_

_**Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage**_

"What?" Naruto shouted. If this was some kind of joke to them, it wasn't funny. "That's all? Why can't we have a fun mission?"

"Never fear pupils!" Gai spoke. "This could be a chance to test your accuracy! You should work in separate groups and see how quick you can do this mission."

Gai's right. Promoting is a good way to show how fast you are for example, delivering a letter in a small amount of time. You'll be doing this in three groups. How's this? We meet back after we've done, ok?" Kakashi thought about it for a moment as they all nodded in agreement. "Right then. The first group shall be…Naruto and Ten Ten."

"Next, Sakura and Lee."

"What?! Why do I have to get stuck with Lee?" Sakura asks in a concerned panic. Kakashi doesn't answer her as he turns his head to the last Genin who hasn't been called. Without even looking in Lee's face, she could tell he was excited to be her partner.

"The last group will be Sasuke, Neji and Itsuka then. Ok?" They all nodded. Upon hearing the last group's members, Sakura was envious of Itsuka and angry at Kakashi for doing this to her. _Now I can't be with my beloved Sasuke! It's not fair! _She thought and looked back at Itsuka who didn't seem to mind. Although Sakura didn't think she was going to steal Sasuke from her, she didn't like the feeling of the two together in the same group, she had worked hard to grow close to him ever since they had been in the Academy even with Ino trying to wreck things.

"Kakashi! Before we all go," Gai spoke, "Don't you think we should decide upon a leader for our teams."

"Decide upon what?" Lee questioned; the other Genin were curious too.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. As your sensei's, we might be called out to undergo high-ranked missions without you so we have selected one person from each group to be a leader and another person the sub-leader. The last person doesn't become one. The leader is there to take charge and is responsible of you especially in missions, the same goes for the sub-leader too. Do you understand?"

"Yeah! So, who are the leaders?" Naruto asked. He had his arms around Itsuka and Lee, seeming really excited about this. Kakashi and Gai exchanged smug smiles before looking back at the Genin.

"For Team Guy, I have selected Neji as team leader for his focus whether he is in or isn't in battle and the sub-leader, TenTen for her courage and skill."

Lee looked hurt. "But Gai-sensei, what about me?" He stuttered.

"Lee, unlike the other team, you are the special one. Do you know why? Because you have focus, courage, skill, bravery…"

"Oh boy, this is going to take some time." Kakashi sighed and turned back to his team who were waiting patiently all except Naruto of course. "Alright, I'll make this quicker than Gai and then we can get started on the missions, ok?"

"Right, sensei!" Sakura said. "So whose is it then?"

Before answering, Kakashi looked at each one of his student's expressions. Naruto and Sakura seemed anxious waiting for what he was going to say while Sasuke and Itsuka seemed more patient though Itsuka didn't seem much bothered by who it was. "Sasuke will be team leader…" Sakura cheered at this while Naruto sighed in disappointment. "…and Itsuka shall be sub-leader." Sakura's face dropped; she wanted to be the sub-leader but Naruto didn't seem too bothered and smiled. "You all work hard of course but picking Sasuke and Itsuka would be better. If something goes wrong, just ask them."

Itsuka and Sasuke looked at each other before turning their heads back to Kakashi. Itsuka was surprised; she had only been a part of the team and Konoha for a short time yet, she was being made sub-leader of Team 7. It was strange, why did Kakashi pick her and not Naruto or Sakura who had always been in the team? She wondered if they were accepting her into the team.

Sasuke seemed less bothered being leader but was intrigued as to why their sensei had picked Itsuka as second, she had only come recently. Did she really have as much skill as Naruto or Sakura to be positioned under him? Surprising as it was, Sakura and Naruto seemed to share the same thoughts as they walked away separately to start their missions. "Where do we start?" Sasuke asked Itsuka and Neji as they began walking away.

"There are so many different places we could go to. How about we cover the market area? There are many customers there." Neji suggested. Sasuke and Itsuka both agreed and they all walked in the direction of the market area.

She enjoyed the silent walk between the three of them, there wasn't much she had to say and starting up a conversation wasn't what Itsuka normally would do. The task was simple enough. All Itsuka had to do was give out free coupons to the passing townspeople. At first, no-one would accept them but when she got a few people to have them. If it wasn't any worse, each of the group's had to do it in the hot sun, it seemed like time was moving very slowly but still, she managed to grab a lot of attention and had already handed out all the coupons she had.

The hours flew by quickly after that. The hard work had made every one of them tired, the sun wasn't so hot anymore but they were exhausted. When Itsuka, Sasuke and Neji arrived back at the training grounds, they found themselves to be the first ones to finish. "What should we do until everyone gets back?" Itsuka asked. Waiting for the others to finish was going to be a while after all.

Sasuke looked at the training grounds. "How about we train?" Sasuke suggested.

"Count me out." Neji said leaning against a tree. "I think I'll go and get some water. I'm actually tired after walking around in the hot sun. Anyone want some?" They both nodded. As soon as they couldn't see Neji anymore, they got to their feet and stood opposite each other.

"Shall we begin then?" Sasuke said.

"Alright but answer me this, why do you want to do this, Sasuke? I know you don't just want to train, but fight me, right?"

"You're right, clever girl. Because I know you're stronger than anyone thinks. Why don't you show me how strong you are?" Sasuke asked, stepping forward. He needed to see what all of her capabilities were and he was curious to see her ninja techniques and not to mention he wanted to beat her.

A smirk formed on Itsuka's mouth. "Fine. But I don't think you'll win."

"Oh really? A girl like you?"

"You'll see." Itsuka ran towards Sasuke and once she was close enough to him, Sasuke slid his body backwards abruptly, his eyes still focused upon her. But when he bought his body back up, she had vanished. Sasuke looked up, he could see her clearly now. He jumped to her level ready to kick but she avoided him, her hands in front of her body. "Shock Wave!" She moved her hand forward, lighting cast upon her hands but Sasuke had moved back quickly just in time.

_She's good, I'll give her that. _Sasuke thought._ She's strong too_; he had to think quickly before she attacked him. This time, Sasuke brought his hands in front of his body forming a hand seal well known. He took a deep breath. "Fire Style Jutsu." A fireball escaped his mouth and was headed for Itsuka. Her body stood there as the fireball was only inches away and when it was close enough, put her hand out and caught it. "What?!" Sasuke said in surprise. Itsuka smirked and spun around throwing the fireball back at him but he dodged it once again.

"Don't underestimate me, Uchiha!" She told and bought her hands to her body once again. She closed her eyes and concentrated hard. In this time, Sasuke was trying to figure out what she was doing. Her eyes opened instantly and then, Sasuke found himself in an electrical barrier just like the one she did to the One-Tailed Shukaku. Itsuka's eye color changed from blue to yellow like lighting. Each time Sasuke tried touching the sides but each time he did, he would receive a burn on his arm. She had him trapped now.

Meanwhile, Neji had just bought the bottles of water from a convenient store and was making his way back to the training grounds, he been studying Itsuka since he first saw her and there was something about her that she was hiding. But now, he was not sure whether or not he could be right. For all he had seen and analyzed of Itsuka was that she was quiet and only spoke when asked a question, however she was polite to him and Neji but seemed to have a cold personality. Truthfully, he wanted to find out why she acted this way and was hoping to talk to do it privately without anyone else. Itsuka was always nearby and there wasn't any chance of that happening. He always thought she was a spy but perhaps, Neji was taking it a bit too far and judging her a little too much.

"Neji!" He spun around when he heard a familiar voice call and saw that it was TenTen along with Lee, Naruto and Sakura. "Have you finished yet? Where is Sasuke and Itsuka?" Sakura asked not seeing her teammates with Neji.

"We've finished but Sasuke and Itsuka are training at the meeting point, even in this hot weather. I'm just bringing back some water for us."

"What?! Why is she…?" Sakura stopped herself from raising her voice and calmed down to ask in a more relaxed manner. "Really? Maybe we should go back and see how they're doing?" She suggested before grabbing Naruto as walking quickly in front.

Neji remained quiet as they walked back; his thoughts were on the conversation between him and Sasuke earlier.

**--**_**Flashback:**_**--**

"_We should position ourselves in different parts of the area so we can give out as many as possible." Neji told them. "I'll go in that direction." _

"_Then I guess I'll go in the other direction until I'm finished." Itsuka said. The only response from the two boys was a simple nod of agreement as she departed. Neji was about to do the same when Sasuke grabbed his sleeve. _

"_Hey, Neji!" He said quickly. "Once we get back to the training grounds, I'm going to challenge Itsuka to a fight."_

"_Why are you telling me this? Do as you like." Neji answered coldly turning around to leave._

"_But you want to know what she's really like, right?" Neji remained quiet as he continued. "Don't worry, I'll need to face her in a fight and then I want to find out about her past. You're curious, aren't you?"_

_He knew Sasuke was telling the truth but instead, he continued to walk away without a word to him. _

**--**_**End of Flashback**_**--**

Reflecting back to what he said, Sasuke couldn't really what to be like this but then again, this was the Uchiha who wanted to avenge his whole clan and kill his brother from what he heard.

"Wow, they're really going at it!" Naruto said. Or not. Sasuke definitely kept his word on doing more than just training. Neji could see how quick his accuracy was and whenever Sasuke did a hand sign, he made sure he was hitting her full force but so was she.

Sasuke gritted his teeth and held his arm, not caring that the other Genin had arrived. It was heavily bruised. He looked at Itsuka with anger. Itsuka slammed her hands down on the ground. Electric currents were going up his body and now electrocuting him! After a while, Itsuka let him go and disbanded the barrier. He fell to the ground and growled at her. She kneeled down at him and smirked, her eyes had changed back to her regular color.

"Getting tired, are we?" She smirked.

"Not as tired as you'll be!" Itsuka heard him say, a puff of smoke emerged from his body and was replaced by a log! It was a clone after all! She looked behind her; he was there. Right there, he kicked her head at full-force and she fell backwards.

"Attaboy Sasuke!" Sakura yelled from above happily along with Naruto.

"She won't be cheering you long Sasuke." She told him, Sasuke had struck Itsuka and she wasn't going to let him win!

Itsuka spun around quickly to her and then formed her hands into a seal. She noticed Sasuke copying. If she was going to finish this battle, she might as well do it quick and before him. She noticed he was running towards her and readied her self as she did the same.

"Shidori!"

"Lighting Fuse!"

Their charka collided and caused an explosion. Everyone covered themselves as the smoky fog clouded the air. When it finally descended, the two were still going at backed away and panted, needing a chance to breathe. The fight was getting pretty intense with both Genin getting exhausted. The other Genins watched eagerly as Itsuka ran towards Sasuke doing a hand sign. "What's going on here?" Gai asked with Kakashi walking next to him. "Why are those two fighting?"

"We should stop them, sensei." Sakura said.

"No." Neji said firmly. "It did start out as training but now, it seems like an actual match. We should leave them until they finish."

Something bright caught Sasuke's eye suddenly like a kunai but it wasn't aimed at Sasuke, it was aimed at Itsuka. Sasuke looked back at the brown-haired kunoichi who was descending to the ground but there was no time to warn her. He didn't know what was telling the Uchiha boy to do this but he jumped forward and grabbed her, pulling him forward to where the target was hitting – his leg. A piercing pain struck his leg and he nearly lost his balance in the air. Itsuka held onto Sasuke and helped him land on the ground safely.

Once landed, Sasuke collapsed to his knees and held onto his wounded shoulder. Sasuke let out a yelp of pain as everyone came over to see what had happened. "Try not to put pressure on your leg, Sasuke." Sakura told him.

"Sakura, I don't need babysitting, I'll be fine ok?" He said angrily, how could Itsuko beat him? "And Naruto, I don't know but…" He let out a groan of pain as he held his leg tightly, beads of sweat formed on his forehead and he collapsed on his side. Luckily, Gai and Kakashi came quickly and examined his injury with Neji.

"Byakugan!" Veins visibly showed onto Neji's head as he examined the inside of his leg and found the small traces of poison. "He's been poisoned! Sasuke has to get to the hospital quickly because it's spreading throughout his whole body and will kill him."

TenTen looked closely at the kunai on the ground. "Neji's right. Someone put it on the kunai but disguised it well."

Sasuke took one last look at Itsuka's face as Kakashi departed away from them; he saw how upset she was. Itsuka stood there like a statue and it was clear the she definitely knew something but right now, Sasuke couldn't move and fell unconscious.

"Hey Itsuka!" Naruto called interrupting her thoughts. "Are you ok? Did you get injured too?" He and Sakura had a concerned look on their faces.

"No, I'm fine." She shook her head before taking one last look at Sasuke on Kakashi's back. "I'm going home. I'll see you later." As she walked away, Itsuka made sure she wasn't speeding up so they noticed she was trying to escape. The reason why was because she was surprised at two things; one was because Sasuke had saved her from getting harmed, she didn't expect someone to do that for her especially him. It hadn't been long since she had got to know the Uchiha boy but Itsuka felt guilty for what he did.

Why? Because the second reason was that she had an idea what the sound symbol on the kunai meant, not just because they had thrown it – but she wasn't completely sure. It gave her a bad feeling still, whatever the sound ninja were doing wasn't good...

**A/N:** _The sixth chapter may take a while to come since a school year has started and it's my last. ^_^ But I will work hard and write new stories so stay tuned for it to come, support me and rev_


	6. Blossoming New Friendship

**A/N:** Hello once again, I'm back! Thanks to all 33 reviewers who have read the previous chapters and now I bring you the next chapter, there are no fighting scene but I promise you that it's longer.

I also found out; the name Itsuka in Japanese means "**sometime/one day**" and it is written in Japanese like this: いつか But anyways, enjoy the sixth chapter which progress Mysterious Blue's plot.

**Chapter 6: Blossoming New Friendship**

_She approached the door with caution clutching a bouquet of yellow flowers in her hand, her fingers were tightly wrapped on it while her eyes fixed upon the door in front of her._

"_Itsuka, what are you waiting for?"_

_She did not move an inch. Naruto's voice didn't even make her reply._

"_Itsuka! Itsuka! What's wrong?" Naruto shook her gently and she finally looked at him but gave no reply only shaking her head at him. "If you're not going in, just wait here, ok?"_

_His answer to Itsuka wasn't rude, it was gentler as if she was innocent and didn't know anything about the situation. But Itsuka knew exactly what was going on. The door closed behind Naruto and Sakura as they went in and Itsuka, still had not moved._

'_What exactly am I feeling? She began to think. 'Fear? Guilt? Both?' Whatever it was, it was beginning to make her turn the handle of the door and before she knew, the door was opening to see…_

"_Oh no…" She whispered and backed away as a hand reached out from the door. Her worst nightmare, it was coming through…_

Itsuka woke up in a cold sweat and began to take deep breaths. The last few days she had that same dream of going to visit Sasuke. And every time she woke up, she felt more guilt every day since it happened. She pulled the cover off of her and took a quick shower; all she wanted to do today was train and eat lunch by the cherry blossoms – seriously, she liked it.

While eating cereal, she gazed around the small apartment. The wooden furniture that was fitted in was repainted and placed nicely into the living room; Naruto had managed to help her load most of her furniture into her apartment. It was small yet spaced out and had a cosy feel to it. Still, who was Itsuka to deny that it felt that way? Itsuka was leaning on the kitchen counter when she noticed something different.

By the bookshelf, the portrait of her mother…had disappeared. The picture of her…it was gone!

A loud knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. "Itsuka, are you awake yet?" It was definitely Naruto's voice.

"Naruto!" The sound of Naruto being hit in the head by Sakura was very clear. "You idiot! She's probably sleeping."

Itsuka opened the door to see Sakura hitting Naruto continuously. She stopped immediately once she saw Itsuka and smiled at her. "Morning Itsuka!"

"What are you doing here - again?"

"The same as always!" Naruto said cheerfully and got up from the floor quickly. "And we're not taking any of your excuses today."

"Sasuke wants to see you - personally." Sakura said calmly even though there was a hint of jealously in her words.

"What?" Itsuka replied in surprise. "Um…alright. Just…give me a few minutes to change then."

Naruto and Sakura nodded deciding to wait outside, it was only because of last time, and Sakura suggested it would be better though. Naruto however had no idea. While Itsuka changed, her thoughts now lay on Sasuke and her dream…

Maybe…it was real premonition that was about to happen? But what was even more surprising was Sasuke. She had a feeling that Sasuke knew she was behind where the kunai came from. Her suspicions were mostly right as well.

"Alright, I'm ready to go." She told them as she stepped out of her door.

The walk towards the hospital was silent except of course, Naruto, though he seemed to be talking about nothing of importance. Then again, maybe nothing bad was going to happen after all. Maybe, just maybe after getting to know the other Genins, she was starting to feel accepted by Team 7. In fact, what if it was nothing like her dream?

Itsuka's gaze caught the sight of a flower shop in the town centre and stopped walking, Sakura stood beside her. "What is it?"

"You guys can go there first, I'll see you there."

"Why? Is something wrong?"

Itsuka shook her head. "No, it's fine." She entered the store without hesitation. A range of bouquets in different colours were placed in an organized way to make a pathway from the door to the cash register where an old lady was seated with a smile. She had light grey hair and was slightly shorter than Itsuka. She got off her seat and faced her.

"Ah, welcome!" She greeted. "I don't see many young faces here in my shop often especially new people in Konoha too."

"My name is Itsuka." She bowed her head slightly towards her.

"Well Itsuka, you can call me Kaori. Please take your time looking at the flowers, there's no rush."

Kaori returned back to the chair and put her glasses on back to read. Itsuka examined the flowers one by one but there was a single white flower that had caught her sight by the same flower, but in the colour red.

Itsuka picked them up without a moment's hesitation. But hopefully Sasuke wouldn't care about the flower much. "I'll take this one."

"Oh? Just a single red chrysthanemum will do?"

Itsuka nodded and handed Kaori the money. While waiting for her change, she looked at the book the old woman was reading, it was the same book that Kakashi was reading in the hospital, Icha Icha Paradise.

"Is that book good?"

"What?" Kaori looked to where Itsuka was pointing too and laughed nervously when she turned back to her. "Oh um, yes. Yes, it is. But I'm afraid only adults can read it, my dear."

"Oh ok, thank you and goodbye." Itsuka immediately caught on to what she said and hastily made her escape.

When reaching the hospital, the nurses gave Itsuka looks; some were frightened by her presence and others glared at her. The receptionist told her the room Sasuke was staying in and proceeded towards the room. Itsuka stopped right at the door. The dream had made her shiver even before she had reached the hospital and the only reason why is because of the person waiting behind the other side of the door.

_Here goes nothing,_Itsuka thought as she rested her hand on the doorbell for a while. With courage, she pushed it open to see a recovering Sasuke sleeping – nobody else was in the room except him. She sighed in relief. Itsuka approached him with caution and laid the flower on the bedside table by the window.

Since Sasuke wasn't going to wake up, she quietly walked towards the door in an attempt to leave. "So you finally came."

Itsuka turned around and Sasuke was up; he didn't seem to be sleepy. "Yeah." She replied, her body was frozen in one place.

"Can you at least come talk to me over here?" Itsuka didn't respond and just walked towards the seat near him and sat there. There was an awkward silence in between them; Itsuka looked out the window and Sasuke resting back in the hospital bed staring at the wall. "So what are you doing here?"

"I came here to thank you for saving me."

Sasuke sighed. "It's ok; anyone would do have done that."

"No, they wouldn't. But I have to also apologize."

"Why?"

"The kunai had the sound ninja symbol on it."

"Yeah, and? You're not a sound ninja are you?"

"No, it's just…" She bit her lip trying to figure out how to put it simply yet shorten what she says so Sasuke wouldn't know much. Itsuka definitely didn't want to open up to him, she was used to keeping all her feelings to herself.

"Then you have nothing to do with it."

"Those sound ninja are looking for me."

"What?" Sasuke asked curiously. "Why?"

"They're trying to take my kekkei genkai from me."

"How powerful is it?" Itsuka could tell he was getting very interested in the conversation.

"It's nothing special, just…healing."

"You're lying."

"If I was lying, I wouldn't tell you."

"So then, you trust me?"

"Trust you? I…"_Do I?_She thought. Maybe Itsuka could but then again, why should she? Weeks after her arrival in Konoha, some people still ignored her.

"Honestly speaking…" Sasuke spoke. "What do you think of us seriously? The team?"

"Well…" Itsuka had to think about each one of them separately. Naruto had managed to communicate with Itsuka but it wasn't enough that she could trust the bubbly boy. He seemed to complain a lot about food and had have arguments with Sasuke that would lead Sakura to hit him but not Sasuke.

Itsuka found Sakura annoying and …well she just thought the pink-haired kunoichi was just strange; she wasn't any threat to Itsuka. She seemed like she would do anything for the dark-haired boy but was so special about Sasuke?

The only person she could remember slightly was Sasuke. He seemed distant from the others, he was asking her a lot of questions at Ichiraku that she didn't want to talk about. In the future, she would have to make sure she wasn't alone with him in a room.

Her sensei, Kakashi, was another subject. He was mostly reading some book as they were walking. _What is up with that book he reads,_Itsuka thought. But it didn't seem to matter much; she liked it when people were quiet like her. "You're all…" She tried to find the right words but instead, "…not bad," came up with something simpler.

"Not bad?" Sasuke questioned her answer.

Itsuka let out a small smile; something she hadn't done for a while. "I guess I'm starting to get used to you all. So shall we say that we're…acquaintances?" Itsuka waited for his reply though she seemed unsure of the word and using it with someone like Sasuke seemed unreal.

He shrugged and closed his eyes before reopening them again. "Fine."

It was strange for both Sasuke and Itsuka to decide upon being friends after she said that. Compared to Naruto and Sakura who were always trying to be close to the two – mostly Sasuke, they both felt they could talk to each other a little easier than before. Maybe life here was going to be ok after all.

But then again, after this morning's incident, Itsuka was not so sure. _What thief would steal my mother's picture?_She thought. Her expression darkened and Sasuke was quick to notice.

"What's wrong with you still?" Sasuke asked breaking the silence. "You look like you want to break somebody."

Itsuka continued to look away at the wall and keep the same expression on her face. "Someone stole my mother's picture and I have no idea who. It's weird because…I can normally tell when someone is near me but I guess I must have slept through it. I have slept this good since..." She paused trying to remember and looking at Sasuke.

"And when was that?"

"3…no, four years."

It surprised Sasuke so much that he really wanted Itsuka to explain thoroughly. Before Sasuke could answer, the door opened. "Sasuke!"

At the door stood Sakura but then she was pushed away immediately by Ino. "Move it, forehead! Huh?" Ino froze noticing Itsuka was with Sasuke and glared at her.

"I think I'll go. See you later." Itsuka stood up and walked out the door silently as Sakura and Naruto quietly said their hellos to her.

"Good riddance." Ino said closing the door when Itsuka had turned the corner. She then gasped at the sight of the flower beside Sasuke's bed. "Sasuke?! Did Itsuka buy you those flowers?" She asked pointing to the red chrysanthemum flowers on the side.

"Yeah, why?" Sasuke said bluntly.

"She wasn't being rude, you know?" Naruto shouted and then folded his arms, turning his back to the wall. "Just because you think you're so perfect."

"Shut up Naruto and let Sasuke talk!" Sakura shouted.

"Um…" Ino was about to say something but she stopped; her mind was in deep thought on the flowers.

"Ino, what's up?" Naruto asked.

"Well, because, the meaning of those flowers was…love."

"Itsuka!" She turned around to the voice of the person who called her name just as she was leaving the hospital grounds. Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage looked at her with Jiraiya next to her. They approached Itsuka not daring to smile and Itsuka knew they weren't going to talk casually to her. "Hello again," Tsunade greeted and Itsuka bowed in return. "Now I'm going to get straight to the point."

"We've dispatched the jounin from watching you today so you can speak to us freely." Jiraiya added.

"Let's get to the point. Your past is a serious matter. If you don't tell the elders right now, then there will be complications in the future. Don't you want that?"

Itsuka turned her head away. "I don't need their help nor do I want it. Even if you know, I don't want to tell, I can handle it myself. Trust me. They would kick me out of Konoha for sure even if I told them now. Just," She stopped and looked at the people; they were happy, laughing and enjoying themselves because their lives were simple.

That's all Itsuka wanted. She took a deep breath and turned back to Tsunade and Jiraiya. "Let me have a life before it is take n away from me, I like it here."

Tsunade knew now that Itsuka's intentions weren't bad. She only wanted to be normal. "Fine."

"Tsunade, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to trust her, we are going to have to keep her secret. We will leave it in your hands."

"Thank you." She said her goodbyes to Tsunade and Jiraiya and walked back to her apartment in relief. She felt like a whole load had dropped from her shoulders now. But still, a lot of people did not trust her. Upon arriving at her house, Itsuka sat down on the sofa and took a deep breath. The only problem that was really bugging her was her mother's picture.

"Huh?" She glanced once more at the book shelf and the picture of her mother…was there.

"Do you think she noticed us?" Azuma asked Kakashi as they watched from a high tree.

"No, she looks too occupied. Plus, we have the proof we need of who she is."

"I guess she was telling the truth after all. Kakashi, you were right after all for believing her."

Yeah well, I'm not going to treat one of my students differently from the others, let's report to the elders in the morning that she's telling the truth about her mother."

**A/N:** _How was it? I mean, I know it lacks a lot but I had the urge to finish it.__After this chapter, everything will change. The storyline will begin and you get hints and learn some things about her past although, I'm not sure._

_I'm not sure when the seventh chapter will be uploaded, I deleted the old versions of it and now I have to start again. Mysterious Blue may go on hiatus again for a while. But I hope you enjoyed it and will review._


	7. Future, Bestow

**A/N:** _I came from Japan since last year and with another chapter! Every place I visited, on TV Naruto was always being advertised for the third Shippuden movie on August 1st. I watched a two-part battle where Naruto was facing Itachi though. But enough about what episode I watched in Japan, I managed to write another chapter and this time, the plot builds a little further as Team 7 go onto a mission._

_Now, I must say that Sasuke is going to come out of his shell more and that Itsuka is going to be a bit happier with her life now. ^_^ I hope you enjoy reading this chapter._

**Chapter 7: Future, Bestow**

Itsuka carried her bag to the entrance of Konoha where she saw Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke already there waiting. "Itsuka, you're here!" Naruto said happily. He was really the only one to be glad to see her.

"Oh, hello Naruto. Where's Kakashi-sensei?"

This time, it was Sasuke to speak. "He was here a while ago but Asuma came and said he was needed for something – it's been two hours."

"Ok." Itsuka replied.

Teams 7 were given another mission and because of Naruto's whining earlier in the week, it was supposed to be high-ranked. However without Kakashi, they had no idea what it was and with Naruto constantly thinking out loud what the mission could be, Sasuke on the other hand, couldn't stop thinking about the flower Itsuka had given him.

Ino could be wrong about the flower meaning since Sasuke didn't believe in those things but because Ino's family had a flower shop through their generations, it was hardly a lie. Love…the meaning of the flower was love. Did Itsuka even think about love? She didn't even seem like a person who had been loved or thought about it. Then again, her mother died. Did she receive any love or warmth from her parents like he did from his own? And what about her father? Itsuka never mentioned him or if he was alive. For Sasuke however, revenge is more important than love.

"Sorry, I'm late everyone. As I said goodbye to Asuma, a guy blocked my way with his food stocks and…"

"Save it, sensei! Where are we guys already?" Naruto asked curiously. "It better be worth it unlike the last mission we did."

"It is." Kakashi unfolded the scroll for them to read. "We're going on a Rank B mission just for you, Naruto. We're taking a captured spy of Orochimarufrom Sunagakure back to Konoha."

"A spy?" Sasuke repeated the word in surprise. "Why would he have one in Sunagakure?"

"Remember the operation on Konoha they were planning? Well after Konoha resolved with Sunagakure, the Sound ninja still had spies positioned there. The only information the Sand ninjas could get out of him was his name and that he was hired for information on Gaara. If you manage to get any information from him, tell me immediately. The only problem is…"

"What's the problem, sensei?" Sakura asked.

"If he was hired by Orochimaru, then he's no weak person. He's got to be a tough ninja so be careful. Now, are we all ready to go?" They all nodded at Kakashi and headed out the entrance.

"Wait!" Kiba came running towards them or Itsuka in specific and handed her a few supplies of weapons. "Here. Take it."

"Oh ok, thanks." She nodded politely to him. "But, why are you being so nice to me?"

""For saving our butts in the previous mission. You were great, Itsuka. It was nothing special. Just something I picked up a while ago." Kiba said, handing her the new set of weapons.

"Thank you." She replied, surprised someone would actually give her something like that.

"No problem." He told her and walked away.

Not long after walking out of Konoha and passed a few fields, Kakashi spoke up again. "Oh by the way, we'll be stopping at Kiyo, Hidden Village in the River to get to Suna for rest so don't finish your snacks – Naruto."

"Hey, I'm only eating some of my mango." He replied munching on the fruit in hand.

"Moving on, since there is four of you, pair up in case of any surprise attacks."

"Cool! I'm with Sakura!"

"I want to be with Sasuke!"

"No thanks, I'll go with Itsuka instead."

"Huh? Naruto and Sakura said in unison, they stared at him in shock.

"Eh? You want to pair with me?" Itsuka said in surprise.

"Great!" Kakashi said. "Then Itsuka will pair with Sasuke and Naruto with Sakura."

"Eh? No, that's fair sensei!"

"Alright! Sakura's my partner." Naruto said happily.

"Itsuka, could I talk to you quickly?"

"Yeah, sure." Itsuka walked side-by-side next to Kakashi. Before he spoke, he unfolded a piece of paper which looked like a pretty old document. While unfolding it, another paper was inside; he held the two out so Itsuka could see quickly. She gasped. "That's…me! Isn't it?"

"Yeah, it says so." One was her file when she came to the village as a child. The other was a document of Aria Namie's file and a picture holding a baby. The text next to it read: **'Aria Namie and her new born baby, Itsuka.'**"The elders found your mother's document file. They were hard to convince. Some of them believe it and some of them deny it. That's why now they wish to speak to you, I don't know when though. Itsuka…are you ok?"

As Kakashi explained this to her, tears fell down Itsuka's cheeks as she continued to stare at the picture. "Yes, thank you, sensei." She quickly wiped them away and stood next to Sasuke. He didn't seem to feel her presence near him until he turned his head around.

"Did…something happen?" Itsuka shook his head and smiled up at him.

"It doesn't matter; it's just… something good."

"Will you tell me?"

"Do I have to? Maybe I will tell you later."

"Maybe?" Sasuke repeated the word with a smirk on his face.

"Yes, maybe." For the rest of the trip, Team 7 concentrated on getting to Suna. Sasuke somewhat enjoyed Itsuka's presence, it was easy to tell since he kept smirking at her though she didn't see because she was smiling herself. It would be a different feel if Sakura was standing by him – she would be all over him by now. But it made him wonder if he should bring up his question now, but was it worth asking?

"Itsuka?"

"Hm?"

"Er…"

"Ah, we're here!" Kakashi announced as they saw the village come into view, it was easy to tell why the town was called the Hidden Village in the River since the river run through their village. "Ok, let's check in and then you guys can wander around until it gets dark."

"I'm so glad to be out into another village." Naruto said in relief.

"Why? Have you never been out of Konoha before?" Itsuka asked.

"Yeah, but this is only the second mission we've had that's high-ranked and allowed to leave the village."

"Oh yeah, what was the first?""

"We went to the Village Hidden in the Mist…" Sakura began telling on how they journey to the village to accompany an old man so he could build his town's bridge and fought Zabuza and Haku. It lasted until they reached the village. It was heading into the afternoon when they entered the town and there was a cool breeze.

"I see." Was all Itsuka could say at the end.

"Itsuka, what ninja academy did you go too? Did you pass the Chunin Exam?"

"I passed the first part but I left Suna before completing the other two parts of the exam. That's when I…" She hesitated before speaking. "…came to Konoha."

"Ok, here we are." They stopped in front of an industrial Japanese-style inn and walked inside. The place looked homely enough. While Kakashi talked to the innkeeper, Sakura suddenly wrapped her arm under Itsuka's.

"Looks like us girls will be sharing a room." Sakura smiled at her.

"Yeah, we are." Itsuka coldly took Sakura's arm off her shoulder and walked to the door looking at the view of the town.

"Hey! I was only trying to be nice!" Sakura told her and moved closer to her. "Look, I'm sorry that I've been such a jerk to you. I guess it's because you're always near Sasuke…"

"Get your head out of the clouds, Sakura. I don't like Sasuke…" Itsuka interrupted and turned towards her. Sasuke felt a stinging feeling in his heart when she said that. "…in that way. He's only an acquaintance to me."

"R-really? Oh my gosh, I've doubted you the whole time. I'm so sorry." Sakura bowed to her.

At this moment, Itsuka felt awkward. All the while people in Konoha had given Itsuka the cold shoulder or assumed she was a negative person. She wanted that to change – starting now. And on this situation she decided that, all she could do in reply to Sakura…was smile. "It's ok Sakura, we all make mistakes and misunderstandings. Let's just forget about it."

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke all looked at Itsuka in shock at her smile. It gave them a warm feeling about her. "Itsuka, you're smiling!" Naruto pointing out the obvious.

Sakura smiled back. It was turning into a good start after all. "Let's be friends."

Itsuka blinked at her. "Friends? You…want to be friends with me?"

"Yeah, be friends with all of us. I've haven't had a girl who was my friend since…Ino. But let's not talk about that. Wait, are you telling me…you've never had friends?"

Itsuka shook her head and looked down. "No." She said.

"Alright, we have two rooms available – one for us guys and for you two girls." Kakashi said giving them their keys. "Feel free to leave your belongings and walk around town, in the morning we leave immediately for Sunagakure. I myself, am going to venture alone." He then walked out of the inn leaving the four to pick up their bags and put them in their separate room.

"Sakura…" Itsuka whispered as she unpacked some of her belongings into her pockets. She knew Sakura could hear her as the pink-haired girl had stopped what she was doing and had turned around to give Itsuka her full attention.

Kiba's words of what everyone thought of her still stayed stuck into Itsuka's words that day and every day after that. She was self-conscious about these things too. If anything had seriously changed about her, lately Itsuka had been smiling more often. She wanted to change and open up a little and show Konoha she wasn't such a bad person after all. People waved to her a little more, now seeing her as a respected member of the village, and gave her happy smiles and greetings as she passed them.

"I…I want to change…"

Sakura hesitated. "Why? Why do you want to change?"

"I want to change into a better person. Someone that everyone will like and will not be afraid of like Ino or how the other Teams are."

"Like Ino? Err…" Sakura stopped herself from getting angry and decided to change. "Itsuka, just be yourself. Well, I guess a bit like everyone else is but not so. Do you understand?"

Itsuka nodded. "You mean open up more, right?"

"That's right! Why don't you do that more often? You seem to be very reserved. Did something happen to you before that made you…I mean people think you were cold and heartless?"

"People think I'm cold and heartless?" She asked Sakura with a surprised look on her face.

"No, well…not all of them…um…a bad impression, yes! So did something happen before you came to Konoha that people thought you gave a bad impression upon?"

Itsuka sighed and looked at the ground. "Way, way before. I don't want to talk about it."

"Um sure, that's ok." Even though Sakura said that, it got her even curious what Itsuka was talking about.

"Hey Sakura! Itsuka!" They could hear Naruto shouting and banging on the door. "You guys ready to go?"

"Yeah, we're coming." Sakura told him.

They stopped off at a ramen shop much to Naruto's delight who spotted it immediately and insisted they try out Kiyo's style of ramen or as he said. While Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura talked, Itsuka sat back and observed their conversation stirring her chopsticks in her bowl of ramen, she found herself smiling at how the three chatted together. Despite Naruto's loud and stupid remarks towards Sasuke and beating him, the raven-haired boy merely smirked at Naruto and replied back with another remark to him. It continued on like this until Sakura stopped Naruto from shouting and making him sit down and just eat. She felt a little left out since she wasn't involved but it was comfortable to watch their friendship…right? This was a friendship that she was witnessing, wasn't it? Could she be friends with them like Sakura said?

"Hey Itsuka!" Naruto calling her name made her snap out of her constant staring at them. "You okay? Aren't you going to eat?" Naruto asked her.

"Yeah." She nodded and looked down at the ramen and took a bite then looked back up to see the others eating away.

"Wow, look at it!" As they headed outside, Kiyo seemed to be having a festival for the circus that night. What a perfect timing Team 7 had. Clowns skipped along the streets with balloons in hand, performers were stepping out and presenting their tricks to the locals and passerby's coming through the door. "The place looks amazing" Sakura said. Her eyes widened at the sudden appearance of an elephant passing by them.

"An elephant! I want to ride one!" Off Naruto went after the elephant in amazement.

"Naruto wait!" Sakura began to follow her but stopped and turned her head to her other teammates.

"Um, I think I want to go in here." Itsuka was approaching a fortune teller's booth and Sasuke was behind her, he looked over at Sakura and shouted to her.

"Go get Naruto and meet us here."

She nodded and walked away as they both entered the booth and were met by a young woman surprisingly. "Welcome Itsuka and Sasuke."

"How do you know our names?" Sasuke asked.

"I can read them through Genjutsu. But never mind that, I am Ayaka. Have one of you come to have your fortune told?"

Itsuka stepped forward and sat in the chair. Sasuke took a step forward and placed his hand on the chair so he could keep an eye on the fortune teller. Three cards laid face down before her.

"Are you ready then?" Itsuka nodded. Ayaka flipped the first card over and read it out loud. "Love. A feeling that everyone feels towards somebody and I sense that person is someone near but you just need to open up and talk to them. You already started with the flower. They are in the same situation as you and waiting to get revenge just like you."

_You already started with the flower,_the words echoed in Sasuke's mind and made him look at Itsuka whose eyes focused upon the cards. He wondered…was the fortune teller talking about him being with Itsuka?

"Sacrifice. The…"

"Wait! D-did you just say sacrifice?" Itsuka stuttered.

"Yes, I'm afraid this is no joke. The second card doesn't say anything that's linked to the person you will love…yet."

Itsuka couldn't believe it. _Sacrifice, I have to sacrifice myself for somebody. It better not be him…_

"The last card, I'm afraid for your future is getting worse…Death." She took a moment to continue reading. "In fact, all the cards link together. You will fall in love but sacrifice yourself for the person that you love and die young."

"I see." That was all Itsuka could say after it. But deep down, she felt her body unable to breathe and felt like she was living a lie.

"You…you've got to be lying." Sasuke said.

"Am I?" Ayaka flipped the cards back over. "The cards never lie. And if someone's life is bad to start off with then it becomes a terrible nightmare to end with. Isn't that right, Itsuka?"

Ayaka looked up at her with a piercing gaze causing Itsuka to run out from the fortune teller's booth with Sasuke close behind. "Wait!" He grabbed a hold of her arm and walked closer to her without caring the distance in between them. "Don't listen to that woman, just forget about it."

"Itsuka, what happened?" Naruto and Sakura caught up and were standing behind them in wonder.

"I can't. Whatever it is, I will have to face whatever it is sooner or later and that there is nothing anyone can do about it. Especially the part about sacrifice and death. I'm waiting for what death offers me." She told him and avoided looking him in the eye.

Sasuke looked at her strangely. "W-What are you talking about? What happened in your past?"

He tried his best to calm her down with his words even rubbing her shoulder which kind of took her by surprise when she glanced back at his eyes.. "I think I'll go back to the inn guys, I'm…tired." Gently, she took his hand off. "See you guys in the morning."

**A/N:** _Now, I don't know if a circus or elephants really exist in Naruto but I only recently back in December, found a site that continues me to watch ALL the Naruto + Naruto Shippuden episodes in English. ^_^_ _Please remember to comment on your honest opinion! And if you want me to write the next chapter, please ask because it's been a year since I've last updated but I've enjoyed sitting down and writing down this chapter for people in a while._

_I want to take this time to say that if anyone loves J-Pop or K-Pop and is looking for updates on people's view on issues in those particular entertainment worlds, check out__**NyNyOnline:**____.com_ _A lot has happened in a year and I'm sorry that I haven't updated in a while, if you still want me to update please tell me ^_^_


	8. Rising Sun

**A/N:** _You should all expect these frequent hiatuses each couple of months because I am busy but I managed to finish yet another chapter. It's not like I'm on purposely not writing it just that...K-Pop just has zapped me from Fanfiction since 2007 so updates are VERY slow along with the fact I'm in University and I'm working now. Anyways, enjoy! _

**Chapter 8: Rising Sun**

The next day, Team 7 was setting off for Suna early. Itsuka had been awake earlier and packed waiting for the others. "Itsuka, you're up early." Kakashi said.

"I...couldn't sleep." She replied.

It wasn't long before the other members came out and set off out of the village. The morning sun greeted them with its early appearance from behind the hills. Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura's thoughts were on Itsuka and even though Kakashi wasn't a mind reader, he could always assume two things; silence was an obvious point when something had happened and Itsuka was likely to distance herself from the other members. "So uh..." Kakashi spoke breaking the silence. "Was there an argument or something since you're all in silence?"

Naruto and Sakura froze up on the spot but Sasuke remained unaffected. "We just have nothing to say." Sasuke replied.

"Alright." He knew something was up. Something was always up when silence met with Team 7.

"Itsuka, do you know the way?" Naruto asked hoping to change the subject.

"Yes, why?"

"Guide us." Kakashi said. "It will tell me how good your navigation skills are." She nodded and led the way alone in silence. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke didn't bother her. Sasuke filled them in about what happened last night though he was quite hesitant whether or not it was a good idea.

Sasuke made sure Naruto didn't try and say something stupid to her. "Don't say anything. The fortune teller is a liar." That's what he said to them but really, Sasuke sort of believed the fortune's teller. After thinking over it, Sasuke decided to be wary of Itsuka. _'The flower is the first step...'_ He felt the urge to speak to her all of a sudden but couldn't pull the courage to do so in front of everyone. All he could do was stare at the back of her head and think. Even though his main purpose was revenge, Sasuke needed to figure out the obstacles to get there and for some reason he found Itsuka to be one of them. A challenging one at least. And without knowing, she was weakening him with his attempt to find out her secrets and if the fortune teller's words were right.

"We're almost there." Itsuka told them. "We just have to make it through the woods..." She stopped abruptly and looked around, Kakashi could tell why as well.

"Everyone stop." Kakashi instructed. All of them listened except Naruto.

"Why? Itsuka said we're almost..." A kunai blocked his path with a small scroll attached to it. Naruto's eyes widened and he backed the kunai immediately before it let off an small explosion. Following this, several ninja landed from the trees and blocked their path. Team 7 stood in defence at the sight of their headbands with the sound symbol on it.

Itsuka bared her teeth when one of the sound ninja emerged and made way. Maseru. The man smiled and walked forward crossing his arms proudly. "Well, well if it isn't the Golden Dragon!"

"Golden Dragon?" Nartuo questioned looking to where Maseru's eye contact was at – towards Itsuka and then back at the sound ninja. "What are you talking about?"

Maseru ignored his question and took a step forward. "Now, is there a reason to fight? All we need is to get past and perhaps...take Itsuka along with us." He smirked. "Come quietly with us, Itsuka."

"You're crazy, you know that?"

"Why do you want Itsuka anyhow?" Kakashi asked.

"That's for us to know and you to NEVER find out." Maseru pulled from his back a weapon; Kakashi recognised it as a Dako, a cross-shaped spear that can stretch, contract and bend. It was heading in Itsuka's direction. Kakashi stood protectively in front of her as the spear bended and entangled on his arm. "Go! Get her!"

"Oh no you don't!" Naruto shouted and threw a kunai at the ninjas. They all disappeared except Maseru who caught the kunai while still holding onto the Dako tightly showing no signs of struggle. Naruto was still running up to Maseru as Itsuka turned her back to Sasuke and Sakura appearing in front of her before the sound ninjas did.

"Move – or else!" Sakura put her arms out blocking Itsuka from them.

"That's not going to help if you're just gonna stand there." Itsuka put Sakura's hands down and landed a high kick on one of the ninja's faces. She dodged the second ninja's attack with Sasuke unleashing taijutsu to distract the ninja.

"Thank you." She said without looking at him. Her main aim was at one person: Maseru Aoki. But he wasn't near Naruto, Sasuke or Kakashi. "Where are you?" Itsuka called out.

"Right behind you." Maseru whispered. The kick to her back sent her flying to the ground. Sasuke noticed this and headed in Maseru's direction. Itsuka brought her hands in front of her body forming hand seals; she closed her eyes and concentrated hard. Then she opened her eyes in an instant. "Tornado Twister Jutsu." At the moment, a gust of wind blew hard in Sasuke and Maseru's direction. Sasuke dodged out of the way as well as Maseru who disappeared again.

Itsuka was growing angry at the man's constant disappearances. "Come out from wherever you are hiding!" Itsuka shouted. The area around her suddenly went black with the other members of Team 7 fading away unaware of the situation. A white eerie noise pierced her ears and she could do nothing but hold her ears trying to block out the sound. All she could do was scream and fall to her knees. "Make it stop!" She yelled. "You've always been weak to illusions." Maseru's voice could be heard in the distance as the eerie noise faded away. "You can't hide. You know we've been watching you for as long as you can remember. What would your parents think of your escape?" A ghostly image appeared before her – her mother. Dressed in a white dress with her brown hair down to her shoulder, she looked like an angel compared to the human to her. Or, if the person next to her could be called a human. The person had a long hooded overcoat not revealing the person's face. "Who cares!" She exclaimed. "I don't want to see them in front on me."

"Very well, then you will never wake up from this nightmare."

"Itsuka! Can you hear me?" A faint voice could be heard in the distance, Kakashi's. Then Sakura's and finally Naruto's until Sasuke's cry of anger made everything around her go white and she opened her eyes.

Itsuka could tell she had been tricked. She looked up when Sakura's attention was elsewhere – Sasuke's body fell before her - beaten and badly injured. "This is what will happen to you if you do not come with us quietly."

Sakura could be heard running to Sasuke's side. Itsuka kept her eyes on Maseru and didn't say a word. "Next time, you will come with us."

Once Maseru fled, Itsuka proceeded to where Sakura's whimpering was coming from. Clutching tightly to Sasuke's body, tears flowed out of her eyes. "Sasuke...no..." She whispered. Sasuke's body was motionless and the colour on his face was becoming paler.

Itsuka thought fast and rushed to where Sakura sat, she removed her hands gently from Sasuke's chest and placed her own hands in front of Sasuke's. "What do you think you're doing?"

Ignoring her question, Itsuka closed her eyes and mumbled the words _'Rekindle Soul.' _An illuminating light started to form from Itsuka's hands and moved her hands slowly onto his chest. The light began to spread to the outline of his body. Naruto and Kakashi stood in awe behind Itsuka. "Look! S-Sasuke's hand!" It began to move but slowly. The light then began to fade from Sasuke's body and his eyes opened slowly.

At the same time, Itsuka fainted onto him. "Sasuke! You're alive!" Sakura said happily.

Sasuke groaned. "What the…?"

"Don't worry!" Kakashi said. "You and Itsuka will be fine!"

"How can you say that?" Naruto said astonished at his sensei's calmness. "Is there something you've learnt about Itsuka that you're not telling us, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Is she hurt too?" Sasuke faintly heard Naruto question as he slowly leaned forward to gaze upon Itsuka lying on Sasuke's stomach. He groaned and pulled Sakura's hand away from his, much to her sadness. "What happened? Wasn't I...? Didn't I...?"

"Die? Yes, almost." Kakashi pulled Itsuka off Sasuke carefully. "But thanks to Itsuka, you didn't."

"She healed you Sasuke." Naruto told him as Sasuke slowly got up off the ground. "But Kakashi-sensei knows something that he's not saying."

"Itsuka never said she didn't want anyone to know she could. But it's in her blood, she's a part of the Namie Clan. The last person." Kakashi looked at the sky. "We must hurry to the Sand Village so they can check on Itsuka. Sasuke, are you going to be ok?"

"Uh…yes." He slowly got off the ground and watching Itsuka being lifted up onto Kakashi's back. "Wait! I'll take her!"

Everyone especially Sakura stared at Sasuke in surprise. But he merely ignored them, got to his feet and took Itsuka off Kakashi. Her weight was a little more than Sasuke could handle but he hid it well. "Let's go!"

"Did you see that sir?" Up in the trees, Maseru and one of the surviving sound ninja watched the sight at hand. "She is definitely a Namie."

Maseru nodded. "Yes. It seems she knows her family's traditional jutsu. We must report back to Orochimaru and tell him—"

A net, out of nowhere pulled Maseru back and got him off guard. His capturers? Gaara and four other sand ninja accompanying him. "Sir!"

"Go back and report! Now!" The sound ninja escaped immediately before the sand ninja were about to head out for him.

"Leave him." Gaara ordered. "We've got to make sure our prisoner stays imprisoned. You two, escort the leaf ninja to Suna. They need to get there before sunset."

"Yes sir." Once the sand ninja left, Gaara clasped his hands together where a sand prison formed around Maseru and hovered following close behind Gaara and two other sand ninja next to him.

"Don't even try wasting your energy! Your jutsu's cannot break through the cage." Gaara told Maseru. He smirked and folded his arms in response.

"Wait!" A voice said. Two sand ninja emerged from the treetops above.

"Don't attack!" Kakashi instructed calmly when Naruto and Sakura readied themselves. "Can't you see they are sand ninja?" He walked towards them slowly and lowered the members weapons. "What brings you here?"

"We are here to escort you to Suna. We need to get there before night so you can meet the Hokage in the morning."

One of the sand ninja explained. The other approached Sasuke. "I can take care of Itsuka from now on."

Sasuke didn't argue as he let Kakashi and the sand ninja take Itsuka off of him, he didn't even care that Sakura gave him a helping hand. All he really wanted to do was to rest from the day's journey right now. Restored back to life? He just couldn't believe it. The pain he felt was indescribable and his body was growing colder but it wasn't long enough to feel death – well, in his opinion. As they walked through the sands, Sasuke's strength came back and he was able to walk just fine. He noticed Sakura wasn't clinging to him for once after he let go and walked beside him and Naruto quietly. Kakashi was in front with the sand ninja, one of them still carrying Itsuka on their back. _'She still hasn't woken up.'_ He thought.

"We have arrived." The sand ninja informed. Upon entering, the villagers gave Team 7 questioning looks. Their expressions changed to the sight of Itsuka. Sasuke noticed Itsuka's presence made some people feel scared, confused and curious.

"Welcome." Sasuke looked before him and saw Gaara along with Temari and Kankuro walking towards the group. He scoffed and looked away at them still feeling anger for what happened last time. "The Kazekagewill be able to speak to your team leader." Kankuro explained.

"Good. You can take me to him." Kakashi replied.

"Kakashi-sensei! What about us?" Sakura asked.

"Is it possible you can take them to a place to stay?"

"We've already made arrangements for that." Temari told him. "Gaara and Kankuro will show you the way."

"We can take Itsuka from now on." Sasuke's hand twitched when he heard Gaara say this, he didn't know why. He watched Gaara and Kankuro lift onto Kankuro's back and couldn't do anything about it. He was just too tired at the moment, despite being healed. He followed behind everyone quietly until they reached two huts and stood in between them. "Decide who will stay with Itsuka quickly. But I assume that girls will…"

"I'll stay with her." Sasuke cut Temari short and everyone looked at him strangely. He proceeded to take Itsuka off of Gaara's hands and Gaara let him without a word.

"Are you…close?" He asked.

"No. I am just taking care of her." Sasuke said before walking into the hut and shutting the door.

The sun...it was already dawn. He looked back at Itsuka and then at the door. Seconds later, and he was out of it appreciating the rising sun into the sky slowly. He walked past an old man sitting on a cushion and facing towards the sun's rise. He was blind for his stick was nearby, tapping at the ground lightly. "You there boy! You travelled from Konoha, no?"

That surprised Sasuke. "How did you know? You are blind."

"But not foolish. I hear people talking and telling me new things that go on is our village. Your footsteps are unfamiliar too. Tell me boy, what is your name?"

"I don't give my name to strange old men." He said and turning away from him.

"Well then, was there a girl who travelled with you called Itsuka?" Those made Sasuke stop in his tracks. "I mean you don't seem the type to talk and neither is she..."

"What do you know about her?"

"Quite a lot. She did grow up here for a short time.."

"What?" Maybe Sasuke could learn something, anything about Itsuka's mysterious self. Then again…this old man could be lying. The sand ninja had told them upon their arrival that word spreads fast upon arrival of anyone who is not a sand ninja; the old man must have heard the news of who was coming from someone. It was starting to seem like a lie now.

Sasuke scoffed at the old man. "You're lying. You know nothing."

"Really?" I wonder how much you know…."

"More than you think, old man." He replied coldly and began walking away.

"So you know she came to Sunakagure from Otogakure?"

Sasuke's eyes grew bigger but he then composed himself. "Y-yes."

"Now who's the one lying?"

Sasuke scoffed. "Whatever, I don't know much about her and I'm not the only one. But I want to know something."

The old man kept his head down to the ground. "What is it?"

"Why are the villagers scared of Itsuka?"

"Ever since Itsuka first came to Sunagakure, she had this mysterious aura for the villagers to fear her. She came here with a man whom I cannot recall when she was eight for the first time. Itsuka was quite acquainted with Temari too." He explained. "She was acquainted with Gaara at times too."

"I'm not surprised."

"They both can summon powerful Jinchúriki that are locked away inside them." He said. "But I have never seen what she can do. You know, being blind and all."

"What about the old man that came with her to the village?"

"I am not sure. All I know is that they came from Konoha."

"Konoha? But you said she came from Oto to Suna."

"That is what I have been told. But people say she came from Oto, travelled to Konoha then came to Suna."

"You should have said that before." Sasuke said crossing his arms in frustration.

"Takeshi! Have you been talking about me?" Itsuka appeared beside Sasuke making him flinch.

"Ah, Itsuka! It's been a while. How is the man you were with?"

"Dead." She looked at Sasuke. "We must go and meet the rest in the Kazekage's room and leave immediately."

"Maybe I will talk to you another time, Itsuka."

"We shall see, Takeshi. Come Sasuke."


End file.
